British Railway Standard Steam Locomotives - The Railway Photographs of RJ (Ron) Buckley

With the formation of British Railways on 1 January 1948, the British Transport Commission took over. As the member for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering in the Railways Executive, Robert Riddles gathered a group of staff to plan, design and construct a group of 12 locomotive types to be -Standard- classes. These became the new workhorses of British Railways, replacing many older classes whilst at the same time working alongside those classes from the -Big Four- that had already proved themselves reliable. Designed to allow easy access for both daily maintenance and daily running needs, they were all equipped with Belpaire fireboxes, rocking grates, self-emptying ash pans and self-cleaning smoke boxes. A total of 999 were constructed over 10 years from 1951-1960, ranging from a Class 7 4-6-2, Britannia, to a Class 9 2-10-0 heavy goods locomotive, the last of which entered service in March 1960, given the name Evening Star.