Southern Railway O2 class 0-4-4T Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight in about 1948
In 1888 William Adams, the LSWR CME, decided to replace the small Beattie tanks on London suburban services. During the following four years Adams produced 60 small but powerful tank locomotives, to a new 0-4-4T design. As was common practice on the LSWR at the time, the class designation was taken from the initial order for 10 locomotives, Nine Elms Works order no. O2. The last ten, ordered in 1893, differed slightly from the first 50 by having modified stove pipe chimneys and 6 inch higher cab roofs. The class is usually best associated with the Isle of Wight railway system, & after Grouping in 1923, the newly formed Southern Railway was forced to resolve the desperate locomotive power situation on the Isle of Wight. The opportunity so to do presented itself when electrification of the LSWR's suburban network meant a cascade of newer, more powerful designs such as the M7s and T1s into the O2's rural strongholds. As a result, several O2s became surplus to mainland requirements. Two of the spare engines were modified at Eastleigh with the addition of a Westinghouse Air Brake to allow compatibility with the Isle of Wight coaching stock. These two O2s were sent across the Solent in 1923 & trialled extensively on services across the island, but particularly the intensive Ryde-Ventnor line services, where they proved to be highly successful. Further engines were then shipped across in small batches throughout the 1920s & 1930s. The final two O2s were sent over in 1949, making a total of 23 locomotives on the island. They proved ideal, although the lack of adequate coal bunker space hampered the class & from 1932, a much larger extended bunker was fitted to W19 (formerly 206), which became standard for all the island locomotives After the withdrawal of the last LB&SCR E1 class in 1960, the O2 became the single locomotive class on the island. They survived in service until the end of steam services on the Island, an O2 operating the final train on 31 December 1966
Size: 2312px × 1378px
Location: Isle of Wight
Photo credit: © Digbydachshund / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: .32, 0-4-4t, bonchurch, class, isle, locomotive, o2, passengers, platform, railway, southern, station, steam, train, wight
