GER Class Y14

On 10–11 December 1891, the Great Eastern Railway's Stratford Works built one of these locomotives and had it in steam with a coat of grey primer in 9 hours 47 minutes; this remains a world record. The locomotive then went off to run 36,000 miles (58,000 km) on Peterborough to London coal trains before coming back to the works for the final coat of paint. It lasted 40 years and ran a total of 1,127,750 miles (1,814,940 km).[3]

Because of their light weight the locomotives were given the Route Availability (RA) number 1, indicating that they could work over nearly all routes.

• On 25 September 1900, locomotive No. 522 suffered a boiler explosion at Westerfield, Suffolk.[5][6]
• On 7 January 1927, locomotive No. 7613 was hauling a freight train that was in collision with a lorry at Roudham Heath, Norfolk, on the Breckland Line due to errors by the crossing keeper. The lorry driver was killed.[7]
• On 4 October 1929, locomotive No. 7938 was hauling a freight train that departed against a danger signal at Tottenham, London and was subsequently stopped foul of a junction. Both crew abandoned the locomotive before an express passenger train was in collision with it.[8]
• On 17 November 2018, locomotive No. 564 struck a vehicle on a level crossing near Sheringham in Norfolk.[9] The driver of the Mercedes involved in the collision ignored the warning lights at the crossing and proceeded through into the path of the oncoming locomotive, which was travelling at around 10 mph at the time. The collision reportedly occurred at around 11:30 AM.

As built all the locomotives had a stovepipe chimney; this was replaced in LNER days by a cast chimney with a small lip. The original Worsdell and early Holden series had three-ring boilers with the steam dome placed in the middle. Also the Worsdell boilers had a flat grate, however from 1890 Holden developed a boiler with a sloping grate and a two-ring telescopic barrel with the dome located well forward. The advantage of the dome position was a short 5½ inch steam pipe which limited pressure drop between the boiler and the cylinders. This boiler was adopted as standard and persisted on all Great Eastern Locomotives down to 1898; from then on it was perpetuated on the smaller locomotives as long as these remained essentially in their original configuration - which could be down to the 1960s.[2]

As with all Great Eastern classes, the Y14 had a cab with a low wooden roof covered with canvas sealed by a coat of lead paint. This was replaced in LNER days by a higher arched sheet metal roof. Some engines had special side window cabs for service on the exposed Brightlingsea and Colne Valley branches.[2]

On 1 January 1923 there were 272 J15 locomotives in existence. They were allocated as follows:[10]

• Cambridge 48
• Colchester 14
• Ipswich 32
• King's Lynn 5
• Lincoln 3
• Lowestoft 7
• March 17
• Norwich 36
• Parkeston 2
• Peterborough East 19
• Stratford 91
• Yarmouth 4

On 1 January 1948 when British Railways took over the running of the nation's railways, there were 127 J15 locomotives in existence.[11]

Unusually in 1957 a couple of the class were allocated to Aylesbury and worked freight trains on the former Great Western Railway branch from Princes Risborough to Watlington before being withdrawn in 1958.[12]

In September 1936 locomotives 7541 and 7835 were withdrawn by the LNER and sold to London Film Productions for their film Knight Without Armour. The two locomotives were moved to Denham film studios and underwent cosmetic modification to look more Russian as that was where the film was set. The locomotives were then sold to the War Department and worked on the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway as WD221 and WD212. During their war service both were involved in incidents and returned to Stratford in 1944 and subsequently scrapped.[13]

65462 at Sheringham

Number 564/7564/65462 is preserved on the North Norfolk Railway and owned by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Society.[14] In 2002 the locomotive reached the end of a major overhaul and was painted in LNER (numbered 7564) and BR black numbered 65462) liveries for the duration of its boiler ticket. It originally operated in these liveries when classified as a J15 in LNER and BR days. Following withdrawal from service in 2013, the locomotive received another overhaul (completed 2015) where it was outshopped in GER lined blue and sporting its original number of 564 and representing its days when classified as a Y14.

65469 was originally a candidate for preservation, but it was scrapped.[15]

Hornby produces a ready-to-run model of the J15 in 00 gauge (4 mm) in BR (with the rebuilt high-arched cab roof) and LNER liveries (both as-built and high-arch cab roofs).[16] Also in 00 gauge, there are kits from Alan Gibson and Nu-Cast. Finley and Smith produce a 3 mm kit. A 7mm (O gauge) kit is made by Connoisseur Models.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to GER Class Y14 / LNER Class J15.

• Allen, Cecil J. (1961) [1955]. The Great Eastern Railway. London: Ian Allan.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Baxter, Bertram (2012). Baxter, David; Mitchell, Peter (eds.). British Locomotive Catalogue 1825–1923, Volume 6: Great Eastern Railway, North British Railway, Great North of Scotland Railway, Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway, remaining companies in the LNER group. Southampton: Kestrel Railway Books. ISBN 978-1-905505-26-5.
• Fry, E. V., ed. (September 1966). Locomotives of the L.N.E.R., Part 5: Tender Engines—Classes J1 to J37. Kenilworth: RCTS. ISBN 0-901115-12-6.
• Earnshaw, Alan (1990). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 6. Penryn: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-37-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Freestone, Jill; Smith, Richard W. (1998). Ipswich Engines and Ipswich Men. Ipswich: Under Stoke History group. ISBN 0-9532257-0-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Yeadon, W. B. (1996). LNER Locomotive Allocations 1st January 1923 (The first day). Challenger Publications. ISBN 1-899624-19-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)