Class 02 – Sir Nigel Gresley

Class O2

The Great Northern Railway (GNR) class O2 was a class of three-cylinder 2-8-0 steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley for freight work and built by the GNR from 1921.

The Great Northern Railway (GNR) Class O2 was a class of three-cylinder 2-8-0 steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley for freight work and built by the GNR from 1921. Further examples were built by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) from 1924.

The first examples of this class were designed and built under GNR ownership, the first locomotive, No. 461, was built in May 1918. A batch of ten further O2s was built by the North British Locomotive Co. in 1921.

Fifteen more class O2s were built immediately after the Grouping in 1923. Sixteen more were delivered in 1932 and 1933. Wartime requirements led to the construction of 25 from 1942 to 1943 in three batches.

All 67 locomotives passed to British Railways (BR) in 1948 and were given BR Numbers No. 63921–63987, but No. 63921 (which was the prototype GNR No. 461, LNER No. 3921) was quickly scrapped. They served across the former LNER from Stratford through East Anglia into the East Midlands, primarily hauling coal and iron ore trains. By winter 1955/56, they had all gravitated to Doncaster (36A – 35 locomotives), Grantham (35B – 14 locomotives) and Retford (36E – 17 locomotives). By winter 1962, they were down to 52 locomotives still in much the same locations, the following having been scrapped: Nos. 63929/34/44/47/50-55/57-59/70. By the end of 1963, all members of the class had been scrapped..

The LNER created four subclasses:

Class O2/1
Introduced 1921 as a development of experimental Gresley GNR 3-cylinder locomotive (LNER No. 3921). Subsequently rebuilt with side-window cab and reduced boiler mountings.

Class O2/2
Introduced 1924 as a development of O2/1 with detail differences.

Class O2/3
Introduced 1932 as a development of O2/2 with side-window cab and reduced boiler mountings.

Class O2/4
introduced 1943 for locomotives rebuilt with 100A (B1 type) boiler and smokebox extended backwards.

To find out more about the Gresley class O2s, visit LNER.info or wikipedia. Volume 6B of the RCTS ‘Locomotives of the LNER’ and volume 9 of ‘Yeadon’s Register of LNER Locomotives’ covers the class in detail.