History of the
Class 5
In 1948 with the
formation of British Railways from the 'Big Four' independent companies,
the development of a new range of standard steam locomotives which could
be used throughout the entire system became a high priority. Mr Robert
Riddles and his team of designers were soon at work. In total 12 new
designs were created by Mr Riddles' team. In 2007 Aster Hobby Co Inc
created a live steam model of the BR Standard Class 9F which included
'Evening Star' the last steam locomotive built for British Railways, now
in 2010 Aster have produced the BR Standard Class 5MT for the delight of
modelers in the UK and around the World.
The BR 5MT was
deliberately based on the LMS 'Class 5' mixed traffic design - the famous
and much loved 'Black Five' introduced in 1934. However the BR 5MT had the
advantage of nearly 20 years progress in steam locomotive development.
Consequently the general layout for crew comfort, ease of disposal and
shed maintenance were all much improved.
No fewer than 172 BR
5MT were built for use throughout the UK of which 30 were constructed with
cam operated rotary Poppet valves driven by Caprotti valve gear. The only
other significant difference between the locomotives was the variation in
tenders chosen to suit local operating requirements. Several were painted
at Swindon and Eastleigh for use in the Western and Southern Regions of BR
in the attractive lined green livery and Aster are offering this variation
in their production run.
The BR 5MT was a true
Mixed Traffic design being equally at home on an express passenger
services as well as local passenger trains and fast freight operations.
A total of 5
representatives of this class are preserved including one example with
Poppet valves and Caprotti valve gear. The most famous example in
preservation is probably No 73050 located on the
Nene Valley Railway
and named in preservation 'City of Peterborough'.
