The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...

 class 8 was a four-cylinder 4-6-0

4-6-0

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. This wheel arrangement became the second-most popular...

 express passenger locomotive designed by George Hughes

George Hughes (engineer)

George Hughes was a locomotive engineer, and Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.-L&YR:...

 in 1908. As designed, they were fitted with Joy valve gear

Joy Valve Gear

Joy valve gear is a type of locomotive valve gear, patented in 1870, where the movement is derived from a vertical link connected to the connecting rod. The vertical movement is translated into the horizontal movement required by the valve spindle by a die block moving in a slide which can be...

. These original locomotives were described as “poor performers” . They suffered coal consumption as high as 100 pounds per mile plus mechanical problems causing very poor reliability. In 1919–20, fifteen were rebuilt with Walschaerts valve gear and slightly larger cylinders, with piston valves instead of slide valves, and with superheating.