The War Department ex-LMS Fowler Class 3F consisted of 8 LMS Fowler Class 3F 0-6-0T steam locomotives requisitioned in 1940 from the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).

Career

The Class 3F 0-6-0Ts were selected by the War Department to be their standard shunting engine. Eight engines were prepared and exported to France during the Phoney War and were used to support British forces there. In an attempt to standardise, locomotives were chosen from the 1928 batch built by William Beardmore & Co., with the exception of one Hunslet-built engine, No. 7589. Two are thought to have been destroyed by retreating British forces during the chaotic retreat at the Fall of France. Photographic evidence exists showing one such example at Berlin-Tempelhof station in 1953 with Wehrmacht markings and had recently been in service, overhauled at Cottbus in 1944.^[1] The remaining known five were left behind and were subsequently pressed into SNCF service as their 030.TW class on Région Nord.

It was later (1943) decided to adopt the Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST as the War Department's shunting steam engine, so no more were required.

After the liberation of Europe, the surviving five were returned in August and September 1948, by which time the LMS had been nationalised into British Railways, and they assumed their original numbers within the ex-LMS Fowler Class 3F 0-6-0Ts, albeit with the addition of 40000 standard to most ex-LMS locomotives.

The eight engines concerned were as follows:

Of these, WD No. 9 (ex-LMS 7611) was sent instead of 1928 Hunslet built No. 7587 which had been prepared for WD service.

The following engines were ordered to be prepared for service but were not actually sent. These were quickly returned to LMS stock, and the allocated WD numbers were reused for ex-LMS diesel shunters. All these were also Beardmore engines:

The five that returned were withdrawn between 1961 and 1966 and none were preserved.

References

• Davies, John (November 2003). Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français Locomotive List 1938–1975. Woodbridge, Queensland: Dr. John Davies. p. 80. ISBN 0-9585541-2-9.
• Rowledge, J.W.P. (1975). Engines of the LMS built 1923–51. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Company. pp. 23–24. ISBN 0-902888-59-5.
• Tourret, R. (1995). Allied Military Locomotives of the Second World War. Abingdon, Oxon: Tourret Publishing. pp. 43–44. ISBN 0-905878-06-X.