Highland Railway F Class

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Highland Railway F class
Type and origin Power type Steam Designer David Jones Builder Dübs & Co. (10) HR Lochgorm Works (7) Serial number Dübs: 714–723 Build date 1874 (10), 1876–1888 (7) Total produced 17
Specifications Configuration: ​  • Whyte 4-4-0  • UIC 2′B n2 Gauge 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) Leading dia. 3 ft 3+1⁄2 in (1.003 m) Driver dia. 6 ft 3+1⁄2 in (1.918 m) Loco weight 41 long tons 0 cwt (91,800 lb or 41.7 t) Water cap. 1,800 imp gal (8,200 L; 2,200 US gal) Boiler 4 ft 2 in (1.27 m) diameter Boiler pressure 140–150 lbf/in2 (0.97–1.03 MPa) Heating surface 1,228 sq ft (114.1 m2) Cylinders Two, outside Cylinder size 18 in × 24 in (457 mm × 610 mm) Valve gear Allan
Career Operators Highland Railway London, Midland & Scottish Class HR: Duke; F (from 1901) Numbers HR: 60–69, 4 (→ 31), 71–75, 84 Withdrawn 1907-1923 Disposition All scrapped

The Highland Railway F class 4-4-0s were a class of British steam locomotives introduced in 1874. The first 10 were built by Dübs and Company in 1874. A further seven were built in Lochgorm works between 1876 and 1888. Originally they were the first Bruce class, and later became known as the Duke class to avoid confusion with the second Bruce class. As part of Peter Drummond's 1901 classification scheme they became class F.

They featured 6-feet 3½-inch driving wheels and weighed 41 long tons (42 t; 46 short tons). The original batch had boilers pressed to 140 pounds-force per square inch (970 kPa), the later batch had slightly smaller boilers but a higher pressure of 150 lbf/in² (1,030 kPa). Of typical Allan/Jones appearance, they had outside cylinders of 18 by 24 inches (457 by 610 mm).

Withdrawal commenced in 1907, and by 1909 all-but-one of the Dübs-built examples had been withdrawn. Numbers 31A and 74 were retired in 1913, number 71A was broken up in 1915. The remaining five survived until 1923 but none of them acquired a new London, Midland and Scottish Railway number.

• Baxter, Bertram (1984). Baxter, David (ed.). British Locomotive Catalogue 1825–1923, Volume 4: Scottish and remaining English Companies in the LMS Group. Ashbourne, Derbyshire: Moorland Publishing Company. pp. 191–192.
• Casserley, H. C. & Johnston, Stuart W. (1974) [1966]. Locomotives at the Grouping 3: London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0554-0.
• H. A. Vallance (1938) The Highland Railway