Great Eastern classes S46 “Claud Hamilton”, D56 “Belpaire Claud” and H88 “Super Claud”

The Class S46 “Claud Hamilton” designated 4-4-0 express locomotives of the Great Eastern Railway, which were named after its chairman. Although James Holden was actually responsible for the design, he was out of the country at the time and handed over the actual work to Frederick Vernon Russell.

The 41 S46s built between 1900 and 1903 were all built with oil firing. The oil came as a waste product from the GER gasworks. Other features included the variable blast pipe, a power reverser and a tender with scooping device. Between 1903 and 1911 a total of 70 D56 “Belpaire Claud” were built, which had a Belpaire firebox. The first ten were again built with oil firing, which was later replaced with coal firing in these and all S46s. The last four D56s were already delivered with two different superheaters. 

In 1923, ten H88 “Super Claud” models followed, which had a superheated boiler. They were designed by Alfred John Hill and were taken over directly by the LNER. The predecessors also received the same boiler. The LNER designated the three classes as D14, D15 and D16. As early as 1911, they were replaced in front of the heaviest express trains by the 4-6-0 S69, which in turn was based on the Claud. The services now increasingly took place in front of passenger and freight trains. The locomotives were withdrawn between 1948 and 1960 and scrapped without exception.