L&YR Class 32
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The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Class 32 was a small class of 0-8-2T steam locomotives, intended for heavy shunting and banking duties.[3]
After the introduction of Henry Ivatt's Class L1 in 1903,[2] several UK railway companies designed extremely large tank engines with eight- or even ten-coupled driving wheels[i] and few carrying axles to give the drivers the highest possible adhesive weight. Although their maximum speed was limited without a pilot truck they were as large as the loading gauge and axle load restrictions allowed, thus allowing a high tractive effort.
On some lines this was used for accelerating suburban passenger services to compete with new electric railways, while on others they were used as heavy shunters to cope with the increasing weight of freight trains. These were particularly needed with the introduction of hump shunting. Although the tank engine layout restricted their coal and water capacity (their large boilers left little space for side tanks), all of their duties were relatively short ranged and thus did not require long endurance.
Hughes' locomotives
In 1908, Hughes produced this type of locomotive for the Lancashire and Yorkshire. These tank engines were based on the previous Aspinall Class 30 0-8-0 tender engines, although their similarities were often over-emphasised.[1] Their coupled wheelbase was extended by 2 ft (0.61 m) to 24 feet 6 inches (7.47 m), requiring the two centre drivers to be flangeless with widened tyre treads to allow them to negotiate tight curves within a marshalling yard.[3][4] This was more successful than similar flangeless drivers had been with Hoy's Class 26 2-6-2Ts, where the centre drivers tended to drop between the rails if tracks were not well maintained. The two inside cylinders were 21+1⁄2 by 26 inches (546 mm × 660 mm), the largest of any non-compound engine in Britain.[2]