The

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

(LNWR) Class G2 is a class of

0-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no trailing wheels. Locomotives of this type are also referre ...

steam locomotives. 60 were built at Crewe Works in 1921–1922. Uniquely amongst classes of LNWR 8-coupled tender engines, they were not rebuilt from or into other classes. Somewhat confusingly, the

LNWR Class G2a The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) Class G2A was a class of 0-8-0 steam locomotives. They were upgraded from LNWR Class G1 principally by the fitting of a higher pressure boiler. Some of the G2As subsequently received lower press ...

is sometimes considered a subclass, but not in this article. They were classified by the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

(LMS) as 5, from 1928 7F.

Numbering

The LNWR used a lowest available number numbering system, meaning that numbers were somewhat haphazard. After the grouping in 1923, the LMS renumbered them 9395-9454 in order of build date. All were inherited by

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

(BR) upon

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1948. BR added 40000 to their numbers so that they became 49395-49454.

Withdrawal

The class were withdrawn between May 1959 and December 1964, with the first member of the class to be withdrawn being No. 49436 and the final being No. 49430.

Preservation

The first of the class, LNWR No. 485, LMS No. 9395, BR No. 49395 has been preserved and is part of the National Collection at the NRM. It had previously spent time at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust's Blists Hill Victorian Town. The locomotive is currently situated at the East Lancashire Railway where it is stored out of traffic awaiting a decision on its operational future. Now at NRM Shildon.

Numbering

Withdrawal

Preservation

References

Further reading