S. D. Holden - Locomotives

Locomotives

The locomotives produced at Stratford during S.D. Holden's term of office were a continuation of James Holden's designs, due in part to the retention of his father's Chief Draughtsman, E.S. Tiddeman. Repeat orders were placed for older designs, some of which dated back to James Holden's predecessor, T.W. Worsdell. There were some new designs, the most notable of which was the Class S69 4-6-0 of 1911, the first six-coupled express locomotives on the GER, a total of 81 being built down to 1928; under the LNER, some of these were sent to north-eastern Scotland. Other new designs included two classes of 2-4-2T, which despite being of different sizes, used similarly-sized cabs: the smaller engines, Class Y65, gaining the nickname "Crystal Palace Tanks" from the relatively large amount of glass for such small engines; the larger 2-4-2T, Class G69, was essentially an updated version of an existing design, as was the last of Holden's new classes, the Class C72 0-6-0T.

Holden also tried some of the recent developments in steam locomotive technology, such as superheaters. A batch of ten Class D56 "Claud Hamilton" 4-4-0s built in 1911 included four with superheaters, two each having the Schmidt and the Swindon pattern superheaters; but from 1914, when further locomotives of the class were fitted with superheaters after Holden's resignation, these were of the Robinson type. Holden and Tiddeman jointly took out a patent (no. 8028) for a superheater design; applied for on 3 April 1912, it was accepted on 3 April 1913.

Of the four new classes, two were subsequently perpetuated by A.J. Hill: there were 66 further Class S69 4-6-0 built between 1913 and 1920, with a final 10 being built for the LNER in 1928; ten Class C72 0-6-0T were built in 1913–14 and ten more in 1923, the latter being delivered to the LNER.