BR, B12 Class, 4-6-0, 61576, Early BR - Era 4

Allocated throughout East Anglian sheds, the S69 saw sterling service hauling the Liverpool Street-Norwich mainline trains, as well as the Harwich Boat Trains, Cambridge and Great Yarmouth services. At Grouping in 1923, the S69 became classified as the LNER B12 and extended its range to Doncaster, Leeds and Manchester. The LNER’s plans for 2-6-4T engines to operate services to Southend were abandoned following issues with the type’s stability and so a further ten B12 locomotives were ordered from Beyer, Peacock and Co to fill the void, the design being fitted with vacuum ejectors, Lenz poppet valves and dual air and vacuum brakes and classified as class B12/2.

With large scale upgrading to the permanent way by the LNER, it at last became possible to increase the weight of locomotives and so a larger, round topped boiler pattern, with a bigger superheater was introduced, along with modified valve gear, resulting in a new B12/3 classification. Further modifications were carried out to the boilers of nine of the twenty five Scottish engines, this resulted in the final variation of the class, the B12/4.

During 1944, due to their wide route availability, a number of the B12/3s were utilised to work on ambulance trains hauling air braked, American built stock, mainly in the West Country. To improve the loading gauge, the footsteps were cut back and holes cut into them, making them instantly recognisable in later years.

Seventy two locomotives entered British Rail service at Nationalisation in 1948, further withdrawals taking place at regular intervals until the last locomotive, No.61572, was withdrawn in September 1961 and it is this engine that is preserved at the North Norfolk Railway.Locomotive 61576 was built at Beyer Peacock as a B12/2 and entered traffic at Gorton on August 31, 1928, remaining there until September 20, 1928 when it was transferred to Stratford. Spells at Colchester and Ipswich followed, the rebuild to B12/3 taking place in August 1932. During April 1944, whilst allocated to Colchester, the locomotive was adapted to work with the ambulance trains and it continued in service until January 1959, when it was withdrawn from Cambridge Shed.

Maximum curve Hornby 2nd radius + / 438mm+