LMS Black Five footplate ride

The London Midland and Scottish Railway's Class 5 4-6-0, almost universally known as the Black Five, is a class of steam locomotive. It was introduced by William Stanier in 1934 and 842 were built between then and 1951. Members of the class survived to the last day of steam on British Railways, in 1968 and eighteen are preserved.

The Black Fives were a mixed traffic locomotive, a "do-anything go-anywhere" type, designed by Stanier, who had previously been with the GWR. In his early LMS days he designed his Stanier Mogul 2-6-0 in which he experimented with the GWR school of thought on Locomotive design. A number of details in this design he would never use again realising the superiority of details not used on the GWR. But Stanier realised that there was a need for larger locomotives. These were to be the LMS's version of the GWR Halls but not a copy, as the Hall was too wide to run most places in the UK. They shared similar cylinder arrangement (two outside), internal boiler design and size and 6 foot driving wheel diameters.
On April 1st 2000, a Black Five answered an SOS from the Mid-Hants Railway to work a Daylight Railtour outing from Alton to Bridgnorth, home of the Severn Valley Railway. Stanier Class 5MT 45407 came to the rescue because Standard Class 5 73096's mainline ticket was running out and the planned replacement, West Country locomotive, Bodmin 34016, was being repaired.

It was a fantastic opportunity for the ex-Southern railwaymen to get to grips with what was considered the best mixed-traffic engine ever built in Britain. Known as the made of all works, there were 842 Black Fives built and she was certainly the most reliable workhorse of the London Midland Region.

Their day out on the mainline included the long drag north from Warwick up Hatton Bank where they had the rare opportunity of working a preserved steam engine flat out.

The film takes a look at the engine's performance on that trip including detailed footplate and lineside coverage as the crew worked to get the most out of the mixed-traffic engine.

Some of the Green Train's other travels are also filmed including Standard Class 5 73096, U-class mogul 31625, West Country class 34016 "Bodmin" and Ivatt class 2 tank engine 41312.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• British
• steam
• locomotive
• footplate
• ride
• cab
• LMS
• Black
• Five
• passenger
• train
• Stanier
• GWR
• London
• Midland
• and
• Scottish
• Railway
• railroad
• trainspotting
• railfan
• foamer
• hobby
• trainwatching
• Mid-Hants
• Railtour
• Class
• 5MT
• Bodmin
• Southern
• railwaymen

[spikemilliganfan]

I would love to be on the foootplate on a mainline run, I have had the fortunes to be able to ride on the footplate of a demonstration goods at Didcot and on Edward Thomas on the Talyllyn Railway a few years ago, but nothing would compare to this.

[thegoldenarrow1995]

@dilwich123 AWS equipment, means theres a signal ahead basically

[dilwich123]

Whats the ringing bell sound mean?

[benskiproductions]

What film is that from?

[mikevalesenior]

quite a bit cleaner than the drivers and firemen i remember back in the fifties .

[bcschmerker]

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company (USA) commissioned a counterpart of this locomotive, the Class G5, for commuter service with its frequent stops; the G5 first ran in 1924.

[duchessess1]

my best mate ray churchill driving your best adam 45407 from kidderminster

[thegoldenarrow1995]

I've got this on DVD to, along with a couple other engines, rileys engine saves the day!

[JimTLonW6]

Very interesting video. It reminded me a bit of the LMS training films that are around; I do feel confident having read them that I could fire an engine (probably not actually, but it did ensure that you got the idea!).

[lonesomewhistle]

Nice to see the late Dave Davis on the shovel in the first part of the video.