Hardwicke

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 10th May 2011 by Jenny Porter

This is Hardwicke, part of the London and North Western Railway’s Improved Precedent Class - 166 such locomotives were built at Crewe between 1887 and 1897. Officially, they were rebuilds of 96 Newton Class and 80 Precedent Class, but were in fact completely new - they were “paper rebuilds” that were recorded as such for accountancy purposes in the asset register, and kept their predecessors’ names and numbers. The Hardwicke was the most famous of these, as on 22nd August 1895, it covered the 141 miles between Crewe and Carlisle in just two hours and six minutes, a new record in the Race to the North (a race between locomotives to see who could most quickly cover the route from London to Scotland). The last member of the class was withdrawn from active service in 1934: only the Hardwicke, withdrawn in 1932, has survived and is now, as seen here, in the National Railway Museum.

Tagged under: steam locomotives, tender locomotives, london and north western railway, hardwicke, improved precedent class locomotives, race to the north

Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives