The newest freight design was the Q class 0-6-0 of 1938, the last locomotive designed by Richard Maunsell. Built to essentially Victorian era principles, [5] these had been designed as replacements for many of the older 0-6-0s inherited by the Southern Railway in 1923, [6] and entered service in January 1938. [7]

The Q1 represented the final development of the British 0-6-0 main line steam locomotive. Later designs of medium-powered freight locomotives, such as the LMS Ivatt class 2 and LMS Ivatt class 4 all had a 2-6-0 wheel arrangement; the 0-6-0 wheel arrangement was not used again in the BR Standard designs of locomotive.

What resulted was a powerful (30,000 lb at 85% boiler pressure) acceptably reliable loco with the largest fire grate area of any British 0-6-0 (27 sq. ft) weighing some 14 tons lighter than a comparable engine which could operate over 93% of the Southern system.

The 1942 design that emerged was the most powerful 0-6-0 steam locomotive that has ever run on Britain's railways. Powerful and light, the forty Q1s formed the backbone of the Southern's heavy freight capability.

2020年5月3日 · How the UK Southern Railway 's powerful but austere-looking 0-6-0 Q1 freight steam locomotive came to play an important part in British Railways history. The illustration …

The Q Class is a type of 0-6-0 steam locomotive designed by Richard Maunsell of the Southern Railway and constructed immediately prior to the Second World War for use on medium-distance freight trains throughout the network. Twenty locomotives were built by Maunsell's successor, Oliver Bulleid, in 1938.

The Q1 was the last class of 0-6-0 main line steam locomotive ever built in Britain. Later designs of medium-powered freight locomotives such as the LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0 and LMS Ivatt Class 4 (which were themselves later developed into British Railways standard types) all had a 2-6-0 wheel arrangement.

The highly unusual and controversial design represents the ultimate development of the British 0-6-0 freight engine, capable of hauling trains that were usually allocated to much larger locomotives on other railways.

It represents the final version of the goods 0-6-0 development on the Southern Railway (and for that matter, in the world) which can be traced through the examples preserved on the Bluebell Railway of the SER O- and O1-class, through the SECR C-class and SR Q-class designs.

The highly unusual and controversial design represents the ultimate development of the British 0-6-0 freight engine, capable of hauling trains that were usually allocated to much larger locomotives on other railways.