The Underground’s Steam Survivor
As an author and Doctor of transport history, I have the pleasure of assisting London Transport Museum as a volunteer, helping present objects and their history to the public. The Museum’s collection reveals London’s many transport types and the innumerable interactions they had, helping shape the Capital we know today. Though few realise that the Underground’s early days encompassed steam propulsion, Metropolitan Railway locomotive No. 23 is a popular exhibit, one of only two Metropolitan steam engines left. The allure of steam remains as strong as ever.
The first Underground in 1863 predated the start of electric propulsion by twenty years, so early trains were steam-hauled, initially by engines loaned by the Great Western Railway. Steam had obvious problems underground. Air vents (still visible today) allowed some fumes to escape, but even so the atmosphere was smoky, sulphurous and thoroughly unpleasant. Some chemists sold ‘Metropolitan Mixture’ to unwell passengers, while others actually recommended it as a cure for asthma!
The Metropolitan ordered the first of their own locomotives in 1864, from Beyer, Peacock and Company in Manchester, called ‘A’ class. Locomotives like No. 23 were the pinnacle of underground steam. The new engines included a novel feature to aid underground running: condensing gear. Instead of steam exhausting up the chimney, it was redirected along pipes back into side tanks where it condensed, for re-use. Although not massively successful, it was an active attempt to address tunnel conditions. Steam trains continued under central London until the Inner Circle (part of today’s Circle line) was electrified in1905.
But this was not the end. The Metropolitan continued to use steam haulage on outlying routes serving its own ‘Metro-land’ suburbs until 1961. No. 23 remained in use until 1948, when it was Britain’s oldest working steam engine. This longevity was partly due to the Metropolitan’s strangest line: the Brill Branch. Built as a private tramway for the Duke of Buckingham, when leased to the Metropolitan the track was too light for larger engines so No. 23 and a classmate were retained to run on it. After its closure in 1935, No. 23 was re-numbered as London Transport loco L44 and worked engineering trains until preserved. It is a rare survivor from the smoky origins of the Underground and was restored to Metropolitan colours for the centenary celebrations in 1963.
A later Metropolitan locomotive brought steam back to central London to mark the 150th anniversary of the Metropolitan Railway in 2013, but the requirements of London Underground’s new signalling systems mean this unusual and historic sight is unlikely to be repeated.