A Brief History
By 1926 the old Great Eastern section of the London and North Eastern Railway was in need of a powerful express locomotive to replace the aging ones in use. The big problem with the old GE area was that it had stringent civil engineering restrictions, not least the need for a light axle load, this meant existing modern LNER designs could not be used. As the main drawing office at Doncaster was busy at the time the North British Locomotive Company was approached to see if they would be prepared to undertake the design work and the building of the locomotives required. The North British had already built locomotives for the LNER to Nigel Gresley’s designs (A1s and O2s).
There followed a lot of changes to the design before Gresley finally signed it off and production started. The design settled on was for a three cylinder 4-6-0 with divided drive - the two outside cylinders drove the middle coupled wheel and the centre cylinder drove the front one All other Gresley locomotives had all the cylinders driving the same axle. Also, along with the D49 4-4-0 'Shires', the Gresley/Holcroft conjugated valve gear’s combination levers were positioned behind the cylinders, unlike other Gresley designs where they are in front. Conjugated valve gear allows the inside cylinder’s valve to be operated by the outside valve gear.
No 2871 Manchester City one of the batch built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in 1937
The ten locomotives ordered appeared in December 1928 and were classified as B17s (the LNER used B to indicate that the locomotives were 4-6-0s and 17 because this was the 17th class with this wheel arrangement on the LNER). They were named after English country houses with the first, No. 2800, being named Sandringham after the Kings residence, leading to the class becoming known as ‘Sandringhams’. The locomotives were paired with new 3,700 gallon short wheelbase six wheel tenders, based on a Great Eastern design; this was to allow them to fit the GE turntables in use at the time.
The lightweight design led to boiler problems as well as frame fractures. Unsatisfactory springing also plagued them. Modifications, together with variations in braking systems (some had compressors fitted to the right-hand side of the smokebox to enable them to operate air braked trains) led to sub-classification being applied. A further 38 members of the class were built at the LNER’s Darlington works between 1930 and 1935.
In 1936 it was decided to build 14 of the class for use on the old Great Central lines, this meant that they did not have to comply with the severe length restrictions imposed by the short turntables and terminal release run-rounds of the GE section. Because of this they could be coupled to LNER Group Standard 4,200 gallon tenders. The naming of this subclass (B17/4) also differed from the rest as they were named after English football clubs in the LNER’s area.
The nameplate carried the club’s name with a cast brass football fitted below and the splasher, either side of the football, was painted in the clubs colours.
In 1937 Robert Stephenson & Co., Darlington, built another eleven B17/4s for the LNER. The company had been set-up by George Stephenson, his son Robert plus Edward Pease and Michael Longridge in 1823 - building Locomotion in 1825 and Rocket in 1829. This batch had slight differences from the first 14 B17/4s.
The B17/4s replaced old Great Central Railway locomotives, including Atlantic (4-4-2) locomotives. The ‘Footballers’ based at Leicester worked both South to Marylebone and North to places such as Bradford, Sheffield and Manchester on express passenger workings. The drivers at Leicester gained a reputation for fast running with this class, although they were not universally liked due to rough riding. They also reached Newcastle (195 miles) when working the Northern section of the Marylebone – Newcastle night train introduced in May 1937. This train was for passengers on cheap night travel tickets and called at Leicester, Nottingham, York, Eaglescliffe, Stockton and West Hartlepool before reaching Newcastle. The locomotives and crews stayed at Gateshead and worked back the next night.
In 1937 two members of the ‘Footballers’ – 2859 Norwich City and 2870 Tottenham Hotspur were streamlined for publicity purposes to work the 'East Anglian' between Liverpool Street and Norwich. The route had by then been upgraded to allow the use of locomotives with longer tenders. These became B17/5s and were renamed 2859 East Anglian and 2870 City of London. The previous names carried were transferred to other B17s.
By 1939 the length restrictions had been lifted from most of the GE section and a lot of the ‘Footballers’ with their longer tenders were gradually transferred to the East Anglia area. The ‘Footballers’ were replaced by Pacific (4-6-2) locomotives on the GC to work the heavier trains occasioned by the outbreak of the war. During 1942 ‘Footballers’ were sent back to the GC section as their allocation of Pacifics were required elsewhere.
When Edward Thompson took over as Chief Mechanical Engineer from, the by then knighted, Sir Nigel Gresley, he made changes to the ‘Sandringham’ class rebuilding some as two cylinder locomotives, these were reclassified as B2s. This only happened to 2871 Manchester City of the ‘Footballers’, which was renamed at this time Royal Sovereign and used for hauling Royal Trains. Most of the other B17s were fitted with higher pressure 100A boilers, 225 lb/sq in instead of 180lb/sq in (the pressure of the original boilers had been reduced from 200lb/sq in from August 1943 as a wartime efficiency measure).
After the war the B17/4s were transferred to East Anglia with the last three leaving Gorton in October 1946. The class now settled down to work the main passenger services in East Anglia on the newly nationalised railway. The locomotives also had 6,000 added to their numbers at nationalisation. In 1951 the new BR Britannia Pacifics started to appear on the GE section displacing the B17s, with the first being condemned in 1952 (61628 built in 1931). The rest were then slowly withdrawn over the next eight years. 61668 Bradford City has the dubious honour of being the last B17 in service. It was withdrawn from Stratford shed in August 1960 and cut-up there a month later. If it had lasted a few more years the preservation movement may have saved it!
On withdrawal one of the nameplates was usually presented to the football club concerned, some have been sold-on by struggling clubs to raise much needed money.
In May 2008 a group was set-up with the aim to build two new ‘Sandringhams’. One locomotive will be completed to full main line specifications whilst the other will be for exhibition and display for fund raising purposes. Two fully operational tenders will be constructed, one GER type and one LNER, so either a ‘Sandringham’ or a ‘Footballer’ can be made available for work as required. Full details can be obtained at: www.sandringham-loco.com.
Building Dates:
| Classification | Numbers | Dates | Maker |
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B17/1 |
2800-2809 |
1928 |
North British Locomotive Co. |
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B17/2 |
2810-2842 |
1930, 1931, 1933 |
LNER works Darlington |
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B17/3 |
2843-2847 |
1935 |
LNER works Darlington |
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B17/4 |
2848-2861 |
1936 |
LNER works Darlington |
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B17/4 |
2862-2872 |
1937 |
Robert Stephenson & Co., Darlington |
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