LNWR Lady of the Lake

The LNWR Lady of the Lake Class, formally known as the Problem Class, was a celebrated series of 60 inside-cylinder 2-2-2 single-driver express passenger locomotives designed by John Ramsbottom and built at Crewe Works between 1859 and 1865, which became one of the most successful and admired express locomotive classes of the mid-Victorian era. The Problem nickname — derived from the first locomotive of the class, Problem, which had been built to investigate the best specification for LNWR express working — was gradually supplanted in popular use by Lady of the Lake, the name of another class member that became one of the best-known locomotives in Britain through its appearance at the International Exhibition of 1862.

Ramsbottom designed the Problem/Lady of the Lake Class as the LNWR's definitive high-speed express type for the southern section of the West Coast Main Line — the Euston–Liverpool and Euston–Manchester services where the relatively level track between London and Crewe favoured the single-driver wheel arrangement. The 7 ft 6 in coupled driving wheels were among the largest ever fitted to a standard-gauge British locomotive, and gave the class exceptional speed capability on the level main line. Ramsbottom's characteristically clean and accessible design — inside cylinders with Stephenson valve gear, straightforward parallel boiler, no decorative elaboration — combined with these large wheels to produce a locomotive of considerable elegance and genuine speed.

Lady of the Lake herself appeared at the International Exhibition in London in 1862 and attracted enormous public attention, becoming one of the most photographed and illustrated locomotives of the Victorian era and doing much to establish the LNWR's reputation for express speed in the public mind. The class subsequently worked the LNWR's fastest services, with sustained speeds of 60 mph or more recorded on the level sections south of Crewe. The 2-2-2 single-driver configuration — common to all Victorian high-speed express practice — gave a smooth, vibration-free ride at speed that the early coupled locomotives could not match, and the Lady of the Lake Class exploited this advantage on the LNWR's principal expresses through the 1860s and 1870s.

As trains grew heavier and the limitations of the single-driver — particularly poor adhesion at starting on gradients — became more constraining, the class was progressively displaced from the top express duties by Webb's coupled types from the 1870s onwards. The last examples were withdrawn in the 1890s. None was preserved, though Lady of the Lake's appearance at the 1862 Exhibition is documented in surviving photographs and illustrated papers that give a vivid impression of her elegant proportions.