Highland Railway classes C “Small Ben” and U “Large Ben”

Starting in 1898, Peter Drummond had eight 4-4-0 locomotives built by Dübs, which were intended for passenger and express service and had inside cylinders. They were named after Scottish mountains, all of which start with “Ben”. Nine more followed between 1899 and 1901 from the Highland Railway workshops at Lochgorm and another three were built by North British in 1906. These were soon called “Small Bens”, because from 1908 six locomotives were supplied by North British with larger boilers and called “Large Bens”. The Small Bens and Large Bens had identical dimensions for the driving wheels and cylinders. In the LMS the Large Bens were withdrawn by 1937 and the Small Bens partially survived the early years of British Railways.