The Last Stand of British Steam - BR Standard Class 9F (Reworked)

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This is a reworked and reuploaded version of the original video.

Hello again! :D

This week, we take a look at perhaps the greatest steam engine ever built in Britain based on its superb performance and efficiency. The BR Standard Class 9F was the last series of steam engines to be constructed by British Railways, but was the final chapter of a sweeping evolution in order to make steam locomotives work to the best of their abilities.

Sadly, with the tide changing in favour of diesel and electric traction, the 9F's career was criminally short, and most were retired from duty with less than 5 years of work under their belt, not even half their proposed lifespan.

Chapters:

0:00 - Preamble
1:05 - A Rare Breed
4:07 - Creating a Giant
6:11 - The Franco-Crosti Concept
8:55 - A Failed Experiment
13:22 - Powerful but Flexible
16:38 - A Career Cut Short
19:22 - Conclusion

The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.

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Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy! :D

References:
- British Steam: BR Standard Locomotives by Fred Kerr (and their respective references)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references)

[rogerking]

I always found it hilarious that the best ever heavy freight locomotive turned out, quite unintentionally, to be capable of running at 90mph.

[marshallman]

I started on the footplate with BR in 1980 and fired a few mainline steam excursions. Proud to say I fired 92220 Evening Star on the mainline in 1986 on the EMI Express, a charter by EMI Records along with Green Arrow. Diesel hauled from wherever to Edinburgh then steam hauled Edinburgh to Gleneagles, EMI had basically taken over Gleneagles Hotel for the weekend. ECS run up to Perth then returned light locos to Edinburgh.

Turning the locos on the dilapidated manual turntable in Perth yard was something else though, all they'd done was throw some oil on the pivots! Brilliant day apart from somebody nicking the lamps off the Evening Star when we stabled the locos in the bay platform at Perth station and had a break in the messroom.

[edwardburek]

It's interesting that theoretically, the 9F's could have run well into the 1990's. I wonder how they would have looked in British Rail liveries with the Double Arrow logo on them.

[MrTragedious]

The 9F are like one of the most powerful steam locomotives in Britain, and they looked pretty impressive.

[Tom-Lahaye]

The 9F had considerably more power than almost all other freight engines in the UK preceding them, tractive effort being the same as the slightly larger German 2-10-0 Br50 but in horsepower as powerful as the German Heavy 2-10-0 Br44 which had three cylinders.
Certainly one of the best Standard designs, on a shared first place with the Standard 2-6-4 4MT tanks in my opinion, as the 4MT tanks were very versatile and reliable locomotives too.
Just a shame of the Franco Crosti experiment which was wasted effort as the exhaust steam injectors and double chimneys combined with optimised steam channels by Andre Chapelon made them already very efficient without the added complexity. Not mentioned but a big problem on the Franco Crosti system was the corrosion in the feedwater heater boiler, exhaust gasses cooled down far enough in these to have forming of sulphuric acid occurring eating away the boiler tubes.

[Mounhas]

Went to somewhere called Potters Bar and watching these on a straight piece of track (as I remember it) on freight trains/coal trains is something I will never forget. Strong impressive & good looking. Obviously killed off way before they should’ve been.

[cooperised]

92134 is currently resident at the North York Moors Railway and is a great fit there, pulling long trains over hilly terrain with ease.

There's a great video here on YouTube from a recent steam gala showing it rescuing a failed train. It started 6 coaches full to standing, plus a failed Standard tank, uphill, and walked away like there was nothing on the drawbar. Amazing things.

[michaelburggraf]

Very interesting. So the class 9F had a similar role like the German BR 50 (BR: Baureihe; serie) which had the same wheel configuration 2-10-0 . In West Germany (FRG) steam traction operation ended in 1977. In East Germany (GDR) those machines could have been used even in the 1980ies.

[stephendavies]

The re-vamp gave me the excuse to watch this excellent film once again.

[fredburley]

Nice to know so many escaped the scrap heap. Beautiful piece of BR engineering. 🤧

[joelightrailway]

It such a real & tragedy shame that these incredible giants of steam have to go to ‘you know where’ to be cut up as it would be nice to these locos in action right until the 1990s. The 9F are by far my only favourite largest BR Standard design locomotive and I support the group at Bluebell of the overhaul of 92240.

[chrislaarman]

It's great to learn that Dr. Costi and André Chapelon have been involved (at some stage) in the development of the Class 9F.

It strikes me that in the UK such a class eventually came into development by BR, whereas it wasn't included in the development scheme of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (the West-German precursor of Deutsche Bahn). Nevertheless, the last official steam deployment schemes of DB (1977) involved heavy 2-10-0 engines, and those of DR (1988) in East-Germany lighter 2-10-0s. I admit: those pre-war designs had been equipped with new boilers (including some using the Franco-Costi design).
Here in the Netherlands, Riddles' Austerity engines may have been the only 2-10-0s NS has ever had (not counting a few damaged German ones), and the last of these was withdrawn as early as 1952!

[martinbradshaw]

One was modified to improve coaling and used as the Lickey Banker. Great video.

[channelsixtyeight_]

My favorite BR steam locomotive. The 9F was the pinnacle of British steam engineering.

[spartanzm]

For a country that once had a globe spanning empire, the incredible short-sited nature of successive post-war governments is truly astounding, and has been illustrated many times on this channel through the various downfalls of British transport and industry.

[androidemulator]

Thank you once again for a most informative and entertaining steam video.- The amazing 9F's ;)

[johnjephcote]

It was a 9F that pulled me from Templecoombe to Bournemouth on my last trip over a part of the Somerset and Dorset. After that, I could only walk my dog (a collie cross, Brunel) up the empty formation from Blandford.

[ABrit-btce]

9F the only train my ultimate garage needs.

[zanelindsay]

A most interesting account, well done.

[alsmith]

Interesting summing up at the end of the video:
"... as a machine that is too large for most heritage railways... thus meaning that the operational future for the survivors is somewhat uncertain."
92134.... Now finished overhaul and in service at NYMR
92203... fundraising underway for the next overhaul at NNR
92212... late stages of overhaul at MHR
92214... only just out of traffic and GCR plan to do an overhaul
92240... beginning overhaul at Bluebell
Six out of nine have run in preservation... five out of nine have an active future in preservation. Even if the other three never run again, its an impressive percentage!!!!