The A12 locomotives of the London and South Western Railway were built between the years 1887 and 1895 to the design of William Adams. Ninety of the locomotives were built, fifty at Nine Elms Works and forty by Neilson and Company, although the latter together with the final twenty from Nine Elms were officially known as the O4 class. They were unusual for their time, with a wheel arrangement of 0-4-2. This arrangement was used by few of the other railway companies and never proved popular (although the Great Northern Railway had 150 such locomotives). They bore the nickname "Jubilees", because the first batch appeared in the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign.

LSWR A12 class
LSWR A12 class No. 539 in 1888
Type and origin
Power typeSteam
DesignerWilliam Adams
BuilderLSWR Nine Elms Works (50)
Neilson & Co. (40)
Build date1887–1894
Total produced90
Specifications
Configuration:
 • Whyte0-4-2
 • UICB1 n2
Gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm)
Driver dia.6 ft 1 in (1.854 m)
Trailing dia.4 ft 0 in (1.219 m)
Boiler pressure160 lbf/in2 (1.10 MPa)
CylindersTwo, inside
Cylinder size18 in × 26 in (457 mm × 660 mm)
Performance figures
Tractive effort15,690 lbf (69.79 kN)
Career
OperatorsLondon and South Western Railway
Southern Railway
British Railways
ClassLSWR: A12
SR: A12
BR: 1MT
NicknamesJubilees
Retired1928–1948
DispositionAll scrapped

History

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The 90 members of the class were built in batches, as shown in the following table.

Year Order Builder Quantity LSWR numbers Notes
1887 A12 LSWR Nine Elms 10 527–536 [1]
1888 E1 LSWR Nine Elms 10 537–546 [1]
1889 M2 LSWR Nine Elms 10 547–556 [1]
1893–94 O4 LSWR Nine Elms 10 597–606 [1]
1892–93 Neilson & Co. 4506–4545 40 607–646 [2]
1894–95 K6 LSWR Nine Elms 10 647–656 [1]

All 90 passed to the Southern Railway in 1923, following the introduction of the Grouping Act.

Withdrawal

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Withdrawals started in 1928, with four of the class surviving to Nationalisation. The four operated by British Railways were all withdrawn in its first year (1948), excluding DS3191 which was used for steam supply at Eastleigh Works and lasted until 1951. No members of the class have been preserved.

Table of withdrawals
Year Quantity in
service at
start of year
Quantity
withdrawn
Locomotive numbers Notes
1928 90 6 E529, E535, E542, E548, E552, E553
1929 84 13 E528, E531–E533, E536, E537, E540, E543, E544, E547, E549, E550, E556
1930 71 3 E527, E539, E546
1931 68 6 E530, E534, E538, E541, E545, E554
1932 62 6 551, 607, 608, 610, 653, 656
1933 56 9 602, 604, 626, 631, 633, 639, 645, 647, 651
1934 47 1 601
1935 46 3 603, 621, 635
1936 43 4 605, 616, 622, 655
1937 39 4 611, 619, 632, 640
1938 35 3 617, 628, 650
1939 32 1 646 613, 620, 624, 625, 629, 642, 644 withdrawn and then reinstated
1944 31 1 555
1946 30 12 599, 600, 606, 612, 613, 615, 620, 623, 637, 641, 644, 649 612 transferred to Departmental stock as 3191S, later BR DS3191; scrapped 1951
1947 18 14 597, 598, 609, 614, 624, 625, 630, 634, 638, 642, 643, 648, 652, 654
1948 4 4 618, 627, 629, 636

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e Bradley 1967, p. 41.
  2. ^ Bradley 1967, p. 41–42.

References

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  • Bradley, D.L. (1967). Locomotives of the L.S.W.R.: Part 2. Kenilworth: RCTS.
  • Railway Magazine. March 1925. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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