Steam locomotive, named Sir Lamiel
Steam locomotive, Southern Railway, King Arthur class 4-6-0 No 777 "Sir Lamiel", designed by R.E.L. Maunsell, built by North British Locomotive Company in 1925, withdrawn in 1961.
Sir Lamiel is a Southern Railway King Arthur Class 4-6-0 locomotive, No. 777. It was designed by R E L Maunsell and built by the North British Locomotive Company in 1925.
Pre-Grouping, the London & South Western Railway had designed the N15 class 2-cylinder 4-6-0 locomotives, under the auspices of Robert W. Urie. Following the grouping of railway companies in 1923 when the LSWR became part of the Southern Railway, R E L Maunsell developed the Class N15s to meet an urgent demand for additional express passenger locomotives. The Southern Railway gave the N15 class locomotives names associated with the Knights of the Round Table, as part of a publicity campaign connecting the railway with the places in the Arthurian legends which it served. Thus, these locomotives because known as the King Arthur Class.
Sir Lamiel of Cardiff is mentioned in Book XIX of Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur as a “great lover”.
The King Arthur Class were the first locomotives in Britain to be fitted with smoke-deflector plates. Sir Lamiel worked on the Bournemouth and West of England services for most of its working life, at one point averaging 69.2mph between Salisbury and Waterloo. Sir Lamiel was withdrawn from service in 1961.
Details
- Category:
- Locomotives and Rolling Stock
- Object Number:
- 1978-7034
- type:
- steam locomotive
- credit:
- British Rail, Historical Relics