LNWR Cauliflower
The LNWR Cauliflower Class, officially the LNWR 18-inch Goods Class or Special DX Class, was a series of 310 inside-cylinder 0-6-0 goods tender locomotives designed by Francis Webb and built at Crewe Works from 1880, which became the most numerous goods locomotive class on the London and North Western Railway and gave service across the LNWR's vast freight network from the Welsh valleys to the Carlisle fells for over forty years. The Cauliflower nickname derived from the ornate LNWR company crest that Webb fitted to the splashers — a florid and elaborate coat of arms that footplate staff, with the irreverence characteristic of the Victorian railway worker, compared to a cauliflower in its complexity and dense detail.
Webb designed the Cauliflower Class in 1879–80 as the LNWR's standard goods 0-6-0, intended to supersede Ramsbottom's earlier DX Class and provide a more capable goods engine for the increasing loads and distances of the LNWR's freight operation. With 18-inch cylinders — the class designation derived from this specification — and a somewhat larger boiler than the DX Class, the Cauliflower gave the LNWR meaningfully improved freight capability on the steeper sections of its diverse network. The inside-cylinder layout gave accessibility for maintenance at the LNWR's extensive depot network, and the design was robust and economical in its use of coal and water.
The LNWR's goods traffic in the 1880s and 1890s was enormous in scale: coal from the Staffordshire, Welsh, and Cumberland coalfields; steel and iron from the Midlands foundries; cotton from the Lancashire mills; slate from the North Welsh quarries; and the general merchandise traffic of one of the busiest commercial networks in the world. The Cauliflower Class worked all of these, from the heavy mineral trains on the Holyhead main line to the pick-up goods on the Cambrian branches inherited through the LNWR's extensive system of absorbed and worked lines.
310 examples were built between 1880 and 1902, and the class gave service well into the London Midland and Scottish Railway era after the 1923 Grouping. Several survived to receive BR numbers at nationalisation in 1948, an extraordinary working life of nearly seventy years for the earliest examples. One example, No. 58926, is preserved at the Severn Valley Railway — the sole surviving LNWR goods 0-6-0 and one of the oldest working goods locomotives in preservation.
Design and development
Webb's standard inside-cylinder 0-6-0 succeeded Ramsbottom's DX class as the LNWR's standard goods engine. With 18 in × 24 in cylinders (giving the unofficial class name) and 5 ft 1 in coupled wheels, the Cauliflower was a simple, robust design built in numbers second only to the DX. The LNWR coat-of-arms on the leading splasher featured prominent vegetation around the shield, and railwaymen — with characteristic irreverence — nicknamed the engines after the vegetable.
Service and withdrawals
Cauliflowers worked LNWR/LMS goods traffic across the system from 1880 until the 1940s. The class was progressively withdrawn through the 1930s and 1940s as more modern 0-6-0s came into service. The last was withdrawn from BR service in 1955, after 75 years' service. None were preserved — a notable absence given how characteristic of late-Victorian goods practice they were.
Identification features
Inside-cylinder 0-6-0 with 5 ft 1 in coupled wheels, parallel boiler with Ramsbottom safety valves on the firebox, brass dome on the front ring of the boiler. The LNWR coat-of-arms transfer on the leading splasher gave the class its name.
Numbers and names
0310 locomotives; LMS renumbered; survivors received BR 5xxxx numbers. 58926 preserved at SVR.310 locomotives built 1880–1902. Nicknamed Cauliflower from the ornate LNWR crest on the splashers. 58926 preserved at Severn Valley Railway.
Allocations and regions
Distributed across virtually all LNWR goods depots from Euston to Carlisle: Crewe, Rugby, Wolverhampton, Liverpool Edge Hill, Manchester Longsight, Bletchley, Tring, Northampton, Shrewsbury, Chester, and many secondary depots for all categories of LNWR goods working. The class was ubiquitous on the LNWR's freight network.