British Austerity Saddle Tanks

The photographs of Gordon Edgar reveal the famous Hunslet Austerity shunting locos in their working environment. This is the second volume in the Amberley Railway Archive series.

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The Austerity saddle tank, a 1942 design born out of necessity during wartime Britain and intended for just two years of rigorous service as a general purpose shunting locomotive, far exceeded the original expectations of the Hunslet Engine Company design. In fact construction was to continue until 1964, with a total of 485 locomotives ultimately being turned out by seven different manufacturers. They became a familiar sight in a broad range of industrial settings, including military depots, collieries, quarries and steelworks, as well as on a number of main lines in Britain and overseas. This is a photographic tribute, almost three-quarters of a century on from their initial concept, portraying them in glorious grubby detail in their true working environment. Dirty, rusty and sometimes abandoned, these are not images of the 'squeaky-clean' examples to be found on heritage railways, although a handful of appropriate contemporary images are included as a tribute to those who help to keep the magic of the Austerity saddle tank alive today, some thirty years after their demise from British industry.