Furio

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.

Origins
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 Britain. They shared similar cylinder arrangement (two outside), internal boiler design and size and 6 foot driving wheel diameters.

Construction
There were a number of detail variations in the locomotives, and they did not all remain in the same condition as built. Some locomotives built under British Railways administration were used as test beds for various design modifications with a view to incorporating the successful modifications in the Standard Classes of locomotives built from 1951 onwards. These modifications included outside Caprotti valve gear, roller bearings (both Timken and Skefco types) on the coupled and tender axles in varying combinations and an experimental steel firebox. Other locomotives had modified draughting to "self clean" the smokebox (thereby reducing turn-around and disposal times, and eliminating, or mitigating, one of the most unpopular jobs).

The domeless engines
Numbering started from 5000, with the first twenty being ordered from Crewe Works and a further eighty from the Vulcan Foundry. The first to emerge was the first Vulcan Foundry engine, 5020, in 1934; the first Crewe-built engine, 5000 not completed until 1935. The originals were built with domeless, straight throatplate boilers with low degree superheat (14 elements). However, many received later type boilers later in their lives.

The prewar domed engines
A further 227 were ordered from Armstrong-Whitworth in 1936, the largest single locomotive order ever given by a British railway to an outside contractor. Crewe built a further 142. These had domed high degree superheat boilers.

5471, built at Crewe in 1938 would be the last built for five years. During the early stages of the Second World War the priority was for heavy freight engines and the closely-related 8Fs were produced in vast numbers.

Wartime and postwar domed engines
In 1943 construction was restarted with Derby Works building its first. However, after number 5499 was built, the numbering block hit that of the Patriot Class, and so new engines were numbered from 4800 onwards. However, after another 200 were built they again ran out of numbers, so they started numbering below 4800. By this time, the LMS had been nationalised into British Railways and BR added 40000 to all their numbers. Eventually the 842 examples would number 44658–45499.

Ivatt engines and experimental modifications
Post-war examples were built with forward topfeeds and Nos 44658-767 had a longer wheelbase (27ft 6in rather than 27ft 2in, with the change in the coupled wheelbase from 7ft + 8ft to 7ft + 8ft 3in). In 1948 George Ivatt introduced more modifications to bearings and valve gear. 4767 was built with Stephenson link motion in 1947. 44738-57 were built with Caprotti valve gear. The last two, 44686 and 44687 built at Horwich in 1951, had even more modifications.

Names
Only five Black Fives received names, though several have been named in preservation (see below). All of them were named after Scottish regiments. Four of them retained their names into British Railways days, but No 5155, which carried the name The Queens Edinburgh during the Second World War, later had its name removed.

Withdrawal
45401 was the first Black Five to be withdrawn from stock in 1961, with the remainder following between 1962 and 1968. They survived to the last day of steam on BR in 1968.

Preservation
Eighteen locomotives have been preserved:

Sound

 * 45212 passing Green End

In fiction
In The Railway Series children's books by the Rev. W. Awdry, the character Henry the Green Engine, in his later form, is based on a Black Five.

In the film The Virgin Soldiers the locomotive destroyed in the train crash scene was 4781, the only one of the four Fifteen Guinea Special engines not preserved.

The locomotive in Magritte's picture Time Transfixed is a Black Five.