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 ...

Precedent Class was a class of seventy steam locomotives originally designed for express passenger work.

History

They were designed by F. W. Webb and built by the LNWR's

Crewe Works Crewe Works is a British railway engineering facility located in the town of Crewe, Cheshire. The works, which was originally opened by the Grand Junction Railway in 1840, employed around 7,000 to 8,000 workers at its peak. In the 1980s, a lot ...

between 1874 and 1882. The numbering was haphazard – while the first twenty carried "new" numbers in a solid block, the remaining fifty carried numbers formerly carried by withdrawn locomotives. All seventy carried names from new, and many of these had been used on withdrawn locomotives. Sixty-two of the locomotives were "renewed" (replaced with new locomotives carrying the same number and name) as Improved Precedent class locomotives between 1893 and 1901. The remaining eight were rebuilt as Improved Precedents in the 1890s; they retained their thick frames – the renewals had frames. Two of the unrenewed locomotives were scrapped in 1907, two in the 1910s, with four passing to 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 ...

in 1923. They were allocated numbers 5000–5003 and were withdrawn between 1929 and 1934; the last, 5001 ''Snowdon'' had 20000 added to its number six months before withdrawal in order to release its old number for an

LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 5 4-6-0, commonly known as the Black Five, is a class of steam locomotives. It was introduced by William Stanier and built between 1934 and 1951, of which 842 were built and were numbe ...

Accidents and incidents

* The Ditton Junction rail crash. On 17 September 1912, a late afternoon express train, packed with holidaymakers returning to Liverpool from Chester, hauled by Precedent class "Cook" left the rails just to the east of Ditton Junction railway station and crashed into the brickwork of the bridge that carried Hale Road over the railway. Thirteen passengers were killed. * *On 7 December 1925, locomotive 1170 ''General'' ran through a set of level crossing gates and struck a bus at

Fenny Stratford Fenny Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and in the Civil Parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Originally an independent town, it was included in the Milton Keynes " designated area" in 1967. From 1895 ...

; nine bus passengers died.

Fleet list

References

* {{LNWR Locomotives Precendent 2-4-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1874 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain