LMS Route: Grand Junction Railway
LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Lichfield
LMS Route: Birmingham-Soho-Perry Barr-Birmingham

Aston Shed: lnwra7

Ex-LNWR 4-6-0 'large boiler' Claughton class No 6023 'Sir Charles Oust' stands adjacent to the parachute water tank on 14th August 1937. Built as LNWR No 207 by Crewe works in May 1921 it was renumbered by the LMS as No 6023 in June 1927. It received the name 'Sir Charles Oust' in December 1921 and was later one of twenty locomotives to be rebuilt as part of an attempt to improve the class' steaming and economy. This required them to be equipped with a new and larger boiler and other improvements such as multiple narrow piston rings and in ten instances the fitting of Caprotti valve gear. This work did improve performance but by then the simpler solution of combining the the recently introduced Royal Scot chassis with the new and larger boiler employed on the Claughtons had produced the Patriot class. The new Patriot class was therefore a thoroughly modern engine making improvements to the Claughtons redundant not least because its basic design was fifteen years old. Twelve original Claughtons were nominally rebuilt as Patriot class locomotives but other than the wheel sets and bogies little of the original locomotives remained. The outbreak of the Second World War probably extended No 6023's working life as it was to remain in service until 1941.

back