GER Class F48

GER Class F48 LNER Class J16
No. 1189, with its unique Belpaire firebox
Type and origin Power type Steam Designer James Holden Builder Stratford Works Build date 1900–1903 Total produced 60
Specifications Configuration: ​  • Whyte 0-6-0  • UIC C n2 Gauge 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) Driver dia. 4 ft 11 in (1.499 m) Wheelbase 38 ft 0 in (11.58 m) Length 50 ft 6 in (15.39 m) Loco weight 44 long tons 11 cwt (99,800 lb or 45.3 t) Tender weight 38 long tons 5 cwt (85,700 lb or 38.9 t) Fuel type Coal Firebox: ​  • Grate area 21.3 sq ft (1.98 m2) Boiler pressure 180 lbf/in2 (1.24 MPa) Heating surface 1,630.5 sq ft (151.48 m2) Cylinders Two, inside Cylinder size 19 in × 26 in (483 mm × 660 mm)
Performance figures Tractive effort 24,340 lbf (108.27 kN)
Career Operators GER » LNER Class GER: F48 LNER: J16 Power class BR: 4F Axle load class LNER/BR: Route availability 4 Disposition All rebuilt to LNER Class J17

The GER Class F48 was a class of sixty 0-6-0 steam tender locomotives designed by James Holden for the Great Eastern Railway in Great Britain. They passed to the London and North Eastern Railway at the grouping in 1923 and received the LNER classification J16.

The F48 class, of which there were sixty, were built between 1900 and 1903 at Stratford Works, and had round-top fireboxes of the same type as used on the Class S46 Claud Hamilton 4-4-0s.^[1] No. 1189 was built instead with a Belpaire firebox, being the first Great Eastern locomotive to be so fitted.^[1] This was done as a comparative experiment against the regular round-top firebox.^[2] The experiment was a success and a further thirty locomotives constructed later were fitted with Belpaire fireboxes and termed the G58 class.

From 1921, all the round-top boilers were replaced by the Belpaire type, the majority being superheated. Sixteen had been reboilered by the Great Eastern before the grouping of 1923. The remaining forty-three were reboilered by the London and North Eastern Railway and were re-classified J17. All had been dealt with by 1932, whereupon the Class J16 ceased to exist.

At first Macallan blastpipes were fitted, but later the Stone's variable blastpipe was substituted. Plain blastpipes were substituted between 1924 and 1929.^[3]

The former Class F48 locomotives were renumbered 5500–5559 in the LNER's 1946 renumbering scheme. The exception was 8200, which had been damaged beyond repair in a V-2 attack in November 1944.^[1]

All the remaining locomotives passed to British Railways in 1948, and had 60000 added to their number. They were withdrawn between 1953 and 1962.^[4]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to GER Class F48 / LNER Class J16.

• [1] — Great Eastern Railway Society
• The Holden J16 & J17 (GER Classes F48 & G58) 0-6-0 Locomotives — LNER Encyclopedia