#0-10-0

[hazel-of-sodor]

Have you done something about Big Emma/Bertha? (I think she (she had two names, hence why I put that) was designed to be an absolute unit and bank trains up the Lickey Incline?)

Not really, she was really popular for a while, and I've never felt I really had anything special to say about her. She was allocated to Wellsworth following Typhoon being reallocated to Tidmouth, but by 1963 BR attempted to withdraw her.

Before the North Western and British Railways could get into yet another brawl, a preservation group formed to save the engine approached with an offer to purchase her. The offer was unexpectedly large (its suspected the NWR made a generous donation) and BR happily accepted, not even complaining when the 58100 Preservation Group signed a deal with the North Western for her to assist with on their lines when not visting Preservation Lines in turn for taking on her overhuals.

Emma, as she prefers to be called, spends thetourist season touring preservation lines across the United Kingdom, a popular attraction where ever she goes. When not traveling she calls Vicarstown sheds her home, happily working with Typhoon, who she'd became close with during their time together on the Lickey incline.

An iincident of note occured in 2019, when a frieght stalled on the Lickey Incline. Emma had been traveling back towards the North Western following a visit to a heritage line when she was stopped and asked if she would assist. Footage of the 0-10-0 banking a modern train up the incline went viral, and was one of the last major railfan events before lockdown.

[intotherailyard]

In Britain very rarely does the need arise for a locomotive with 10 driving wheels, the only locomotives with such design include the 0-10-0 tank engine "Decapod" built by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) and the 2-10-0 British Railways (BR) standard class 9F's and of course the 0-10-0 tender locomotive built by the Midland Railway (MR) shown in the picture above.

In 1919 the Midland Railway built a single 0-10-0 steam locomotive to the design of James Anderson; its purpose was to fulfill the banking duties on the infamous Lickey Incline in Worcestershire, England (the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain). The engine became known as "Big Bertha" or "Big Emma" by railwaymen and railway enthusiasts; as time went on she was inherited by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) after the Midland Railway was annexed into the LMS and then inherited by British Railways (BR) when nationalization happened. With a weight of 107 tons and 10 driving wheels with a diameter of 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, she had a tractive effort of 43,300 lbf. She was the only locomotive not given a power classification by either the LMS or BR, since she was designed specifically for the job of providing extra power over the Lickey Incline and was not suitable for normal train working. The engine was withdrawn on May 19th 1956 and scrapped by Derby Works in September 1957, having covered 838,856 miles mostly on the Lickey Incline. BR standard class 9F No. 92079 took over her roll, even acquiring Big Bertha's electric headlight for the duty. 

Here is British Railways 9F No. 92079 with Big Bertha's electric headlight.