For shunting and local goods work, the Great Northern Railway (GNR) had traditionally used saddle-tank engines of the 0-6-0 wheel arrangement; the last of these, of GNR Class J13, having been built in 1909 to the designs of Henry Ivatt, the GNR Locomotive Superintendent.

Six men held this post during the existence of the Great Northern Railway. Until 1868 engines were obtained from outside manufacturers, but after this date were increasingly built at the railway's own Doncaster Works, commonly known as the "Plant". Some engines acquired second-hand or from absorbed companies have been omitted from these lists.

The Great Northern Railway (GNR) Class N2 is an 0-6-2T side tank steam locomotive designed by Nigel Gresley and introduced in 1920. Further batches were built by the London and North Eastern Railway from 1925. They had superheaters and piston valves driven by …

Gresley designed the Great Northern Railway (GNR) Class J23 (LNER J51) 0-6-0T in 1913 for working the steeply graded lines in the West Riding. Designed to replace the J3, J4, and J7 tender locomotives, an 18.5in cylinder diameter was chosen to produce a greater power output.

The Great Northern Railway Class J23 was a class of 0-6-0T steam locomotive. They had long side tanks that came to the front of the smokebox, which sloped forwards to improve visibility and had a recess cut in to aid maintenance. Forty were built by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) between 1913...

Boilers carried classes covered in “GREAT NORTHERN LOCOMOTIVE HISTORY” (GROVES) PART 4.

These Gresley designed locomotives became known as Ardsley Tanks. The locomotives introduced in 1913 were designed for working the steeply graded lines in the West riding and were allocated to Ardsley, Bradford and Copley Hill. They were introduced in 1922 as the GNR J23 class and were designed for freight and shunting duties.

221 Class (LNER J50) built with larger boilers. Further examples were built after Grouping. Four J50s had their boilers changed at Stratford. These are indicated by the suffix S after the date. (d) Transferred to Departmental Stock.

In Volume 1 (1847-66), Groves describes in detail the ramifications of the early GNR engines, with rebuildings from tender to tank and tank to tender. Unfortunately the story is not complete, due to limitations in the surviving records for the period.

With the completion of the final batch of Ivatt’s N1 0-6-2T suburban tank, the Great Northern Railway (GNR) did not require any further suburban tank locomotives until after the First World War. In 1919 Gresley considered a number of possible designs for a new suburban tank engine, including an improved 0-6-2T, a 2-6-2T, and a 2-6-4T.