The Wheatley J84 (NBR Class E) 0-6-0T Locomotives

Wheatley built the J31 0-6-0 tender locomotives between 1867 and 1874 for main line goods trains. By the 1880s, most of these engines had been taken off main line duties, and were being used for transfer trips and yard shunting. Tenders were not required for this work, so Holmes rebuilt twenty of the J31s as J84 saddle tanks. The end result was a locomotive that was very similar to Wheatley's own J85 0-6-0ST design. The rebuilds were completed between 1889 and 1895. The saddle tanks were to a typical Holmes pattern with a curved base, countersunk rivets, and front filler.

The J84s were rebuilt with new boilers between 1892 and 1901. Although this overlapped with the saddle tank rebuilds, no locomotive was rebuilt from a J31 with saddle tank and new boiler at the same time. Unlike many of the other NBR 0-6-0ST boiler rebuilds, the dome was kept in the same position to avoid tank alterations. The Wheatley chimney was replaced with a Holmes pattern, though.

After the conversion to saddle tanks, these locomotives were primarily used as shunting pilots in the Central Lowlands. Exceptions were Nos. 439 & 444 which were allocated to Carlisle and Kelty respectively.

No. 440 was withdrawn in 1915, and sixteen were withdrawn between 1919 and 1921. Their duties were typically taken over by the larger N15 0-6-2Ts or J83s. This left three J84s to enter LNER ownership and these were all withdrawn by June 1924.

Technical Details

Preservation

None of the J84s survived into preservation.

Models

I am not aware of any models of the J84s in any scale.