Midland Compound 4-4-0 (1000 Class)

Samuel Waite Johnson, locomotive superintendent of the Midland Railway from 1873 to 1903, designed the original 1000 Class compound 4-4-0 in 1902. The choice of compounding was unusual for British practice: the great majority of British express designs of the period were simple-expansion engines, and the only previous British compound express designs (the LNWR Webb compounds of the 1880s) had been notably unsuccessful. Johnson's 1000 Class was an attempt to repeat the better-regarded compound success of French designs (notably the de Glehn 4-cylinder Atlantic) on the Midland Railway, where the heavy gradients of the Settle and Carlisle line and the long express runs from St Pancras to Leeds and Manchester demanded fuel-efficient power.

Five engines were built to Johnson's original design in 1902 to 1903. Richard Deeley, who succeeded Johnson in 1903, modified the design and built another 40 engines between 1905 and 1909, with detail improvements. Henry Fowler became chief mechanical engineer of the LMS in 1925 and authorised the construction of a further 155 engines to a slightly modified design between 1924 and 1932, making the Compound the LMS's standard express 4-4-0 for nearly a decade. Total production was 195 engines.

The Compound was a successful design for the kind of work it was given: long, fast express services on the Midland and LMS Midland Division. The compounding gave excellent fuel economy at moderate speeds and was particularly suited to the LMS's philosophy of running pairs of smaller engines on heavy expresses rather than larger single engines. The class held its place at the head of the LMS's premier expresses until the Stanier Pacifics took over in the late 1930s.

The Compounds spent their working lives on Midland and (later) LMS Midland Division express work: London-Leeds, London-Manchester, London-Sheffield, London-Carlisle, the cross-country routes from Bristol to the North, and the heaviest summer Saturday trains. They were a familiar sight at Leeds Holbeck and Carlisle Durran Hill on the Settle and Carlisle line, where their fuel efficiency made them particularly valuable on the heavy gradients.

The Stanier Pacifics of the 1930s took over the heaviest LMS expresses, but the Compounds remained on secondary expresses and the cross-country routes through the 1940s and 1950s. Withdrawals began in 1948 and accelerated through the 1950s as the LMS's newer Black Fives and BR Standards displaced the older 4-4-0s. The last Compound in regular service was withdrawn in 1962, and the class was extinct apart from the preserved 1000.

1000 is the surviving Midland Compound and the prototype of the class. Built at Derby Works in 1902 to Johnson's original design, it was rebuilt by Deeley in 1907 and by Fowler with superheating in 1914. It worked Midland and LMS Midland Division expresses for over fifty years and was withdrawn from BR service in 1951. Selected for the National Collection on the recommendation of the LMS's management, it was preserved at the Midland Railway's former works at Derby and is now at the National Railway Museum in York.

1000 was returned to working order in 1959 and ran on excursions in the early 1960s. It has been static in the National Collection since the late 1960s but is one of the most photographed and celebrated of all preserved British locomotives, and the only British 4-4-0 compound to survive into preservation.

The other 194 Compounds were scrapped, with most going to scrap during the late 1950s and early 1960s as the class was withdrawn from regular service.

The class was outshopped from new in the Midland Railway's splendid lined-out crimson lake livery, with full lining-out, polished brass fittings, and the Midland's wyvern crest on the tender. The LMS from 1923 painted the class in plain LMS crimson lake (without the orange line) and from the late 1920s in lined LMS crimson lake. British Railways from 1948 painted the survivors in lined dark green with the early lion-and-wheel emblem; from 1956 the late ferret-and-dartboard crest. The preserved 1000 has been kept in the original Midland Railway crimson lake livery in preservation.