Opinion and Answer Edition 2023 Part #29: Steaming above ground AND underground

 

On today's Opinion & Answer, I dive into an interesting point in the steam Engine world. And that point is that while there were steam locomotives that we saw but how about Steam locomotives underground which happen on the Metropolitan Railway. So with this topic, we will be diving into the London Underground tube-gauge steam locomotives so let's get into the topic. We'll first look at Central London Railway and then take a look at City & South London Railway. 

please note this will be mostly brief/ summary as there are plenty of sources on this to explore. 

-Conductor Wolf 

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So to start off, we will be examining Central London Railway 

The Central London Railway obtained two small steam 0-6-0T locomotives from the Hunslet Engine Company in 1899, to assist with the task of equipping the tunnels once the civil engineering work of building them had been completed. Both small steam locomotives' fuel tanks held 50 imperial gallons (230 L) of oil  that were fitted into the bunker, which could also hold 0.75 tons of coal, since the grate was designed so that either fuel could be used. On the Central London Railway, both locomotives were numbered 1 & 2 that were built by Hunselt Engine Company. 

On a sad note, both were withdrawn in 1923 and scrapped.

Within 22 years after Central London Railway obtained two small steam 0-6-0T locomotives, a third engine was built in 1922 for the City & South London Railway. 

The City & South London Railway was built with tunnels of only 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) diameter, but they were enlarged between 1923 and 1925, when the line amalgamated with the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway. Kerr, Stuart built a number of Brazil class locomotives, of which four 2 ft 6 in (762 mm)-gauge examples survive in preservation, three on the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway and one on the Great Whipsnade Railway.  

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That's all for this Opinion & Answer topic, click any links below for further reading on these railways or on other London underground railways. 

• London Underground tube-gauge steam locomotives (wiki page)
  
• Metropolitan Railway steam locomotives (wiki page)
  
• The Underground’s Steam Survivor (London Transport Museum)