Beattie well tanks
Design and development
Joseph Beattie, Locomotive Superintendent of the LSWR from 1850 to 1871, designed in 1862 a small 2-4-0 tank engine for the railway's expanding London suburban services. The water supply was carried in a "well" tank slung between the frames below the boiler — an arrangement that lowered the centre of gravity and avoided the side-tank weight distribution problems that afflicted later designs.
Beattie's wells were technically sophisticated for the period, with feedwater heaters and other refinements that gave them excellent steaming and economy. 85 were built between 1862 and 1875 by Beyer Peacock and at Nine Elms.
Service and withdrawals
The class worked LSWR London suburban services until progressively superseded by tank engines from the 1880s. As they were displaced from London, the wells were drafted to country branches; three engines (Nos. 0314, 0298, 0329) ended up on the steeply-graded Bodmin & Wadebridge mineral branch in Cornwall, where they remained in service to the very end. They were withdrawn in 1962, after almost exactly a century in LSWR/SR/BR ownership — the longest single locomotive service-life in British practice.
Two of the three are preserved: 30585 (formerly 0298) by the National Railway Museum and currently based on the Bluebell Railway; and 30587 (formerly 0314) at the National Railway Museum, York.
Identification features
Small 2-4-0 tank engine with leading 2-wheel pony truck, two coupled axles, no side tanks (water in the well between the frames), small bunker behind the cab. Distinctive low silhouette and elegant Victorian styling. The Bluebell engine carries LSWR brown livery.
Notable locomotives
- 30585 (LSWR No. 0298, 1874, Bluebell Railway)
- 30587 (LSWR No. 0314, 1875, National Railway Museum)