(Summary from Wikipedia) The Claughtons were introduced in 1913, the first of the class No. 2222 was named in honour of Sir Gilbert Claughton, who was the Chairman of the LNWR at that time. A total of 130 were built, all at Crewe Works up to 1921. Twenty were rebuilt by the LMS with larger boilers, of which ten of these had Caprotti valve gear. Twelve others were rebuilt as the initial engines of the Patriot Class, although this was primarily a paper exercise – the only visible recycling being on the first 2 Patriots, whose reused driving wheels had the characteristic ‘large boss’ in the centre.
With the introduction of the LMS Royal Scot Class in 1927, the Claughtons’ main work on the West Coast main line was taken over and many were transferred to the Midland Division. By 1937, all but four – 5946, 6004, 6017 and 6023 – had been withdrawn. These were retained in service into WW2 until repairs became uneconomic; 3 were withdrawn in 1940–41, leaving No. 6004 (formerly “Princess Louise”, the name transferred in 1935 to Stanier’s new “Princess” pacific no 6205). The last Claughton soldiered on 8 more years hauling fitted freight trains between London and Edge Hill, becoming increasingly dirty. Inherited by British Railways in 1948, it was allocated the BR number 46004 but was withdrawn in 1949 without its BR identity being applied. None made it into preservation.
LNWR Claughtons in the Model Collection:
LNWR Lined Blackberry Black No 169 “BREADALBANE’ – original livery carried across 1913-26
LMS / LNWR unlined black No 6028, unnamed, unrebuilt / small boiler retained to withdrawal in 1930s (rename 5968 “JOHN O GROAT” (or LNWR plain black as 1599))
LMS unlined black No 5970 ‘PATIENCE”, unrebuilt / small boiler retained to withdrawal in 1930s (rename “LLEWELLYN”)
LMS Lined Crimson No 6004 ‘PRINCESS LOUISE” small boiler / original condition, 1920s (rename to “CROXTETH” or 6008 “LADY GODIVA”)
LMS Lined Crimson No 5962 as rebuilt with large boiler + Caprotti valve gear, but NO smoke deflectors – 1930s (rename to 5975 “TALISMAN”).
LMS Lined Crimson No 6004 ‘PRINCESS LOUISE” as rebuilt with large boiler, smoke deflectors but Walschaerts valve gear, 1930s (rename to 5953 ‘BUCKINGHAM”)
LMS heavy weathered WW2 red No “ALFRED FLETCHER” as rebuilt with all 3 large boiler, smoke deflectors and Caprotti valve gear, 1930s (rename to ‘BALTIC’)
Browse Flickr Albums
Click LH -RH to scroll through imagesof Claughtons in the Great British Model Railway Museum collection:
Could display reference books as a bullet list (as here); as a gallery (below); smaller thumbnails / slideshow format might take up less space on page.
Video Content
This LNWR running session includes the finely finished No 169 “Breadalbane”, fully lined in the LNWR’s pre-grouping blackberry black as it would have carried circa 1921-25 – as companies recovered from the austerities of WW1, and started to reinstate their former glorious Edwardian liveries.
Unnamed, but beautifully detailed ‘Claughton’ no 5962 in fully lined LMS crimson, as it woudl have been late 1920s following fitting of the larger boiler and Caprotti valve gear – but before smoke deflectors were added in the 1930s.
Grouping era ‘Claughton’ “CJ Bowen Cooke” running on the ‘Blackbury Line’ in South Wales, the first Claughton qcquired for the collection circa 2015. This loco went to a new owner circa 2022, when I acquired ‘Breadalbane’ (above) – though I’ve been regretting selling it ever since, as it’s a lovely model!
Individual Models in the Collection
Box links currently take users to relevant images / sections within the Flickr “Claughtons’ album (click RH to view other images of selected loco). Alternatives options as the website develops may include:
Experiment with Tags within Flickr, and / or other organisational tools, so that users see galleries of whichever loco / combination of items are linked to.
Individual loco pages for each collection item / locomotive (this could be a cumbersome content creation task)
These could be done as ‘posts’ rather than ‘pages’, which may make it easier to tag collection items and then create pages curating a wide range of search results – eg ‘Bowen Cooke designs’, or ‘4-6-0s’ or ‘1910s’ or ‘LMS Crimson’ or ‘preserved’.
