Great Central Railway 4-4-0 No. 506 'Butler Henderson'
Barrow Hill, Derbyshire, UK 		Location: Barrow Hill Railway Centre
Status: Display
Posted: Sep 27, 2007 @ 07:09:14 by Steve Frost
Robinson's class 11F were known as 'Directors', as some carried the names of directors of the Great Central Railway - hence the name 'Butler - Henderson' (Others were named after battles of the Great War - Ypres, Zeebrugge etc). The opening of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway's London extension, and its renaming as the Great Central Railway demanded something to haul the London expresses. Much was expected of a new 4-6-0 type, but results were not up to those expectations. Robinson looked again at the proven 4-4-0 type, and the 'Directors' were the result. Not that they were a return to the old order - far from it. With large, superheated boilers with a generous grate area they dominated the Great Central's London services. It didn't end there, however. In 1923 the Great Central became part of the London & North Eastern Railway and Gresley, the CME, needed some more powerful locos for work on former North British Railway routes in Scotland. Why re-invent the wheel? The 'Directors' could do the job, so another 24 were built under the LNER's regime, albeit with cut down chimney, dome etc to fit the Scottish loading gauge. What better endorsement is there than that? The sole survivor, CGR No 506 has worked in preservation over former GCR metals, but is presently only a display item at Barrow Road.