LNER Route: Leicester to Marylebone

Rugby Central Station: gcrcs209

An unidentified ex-GNR Class H4 2-6-0 locomotive passes through Rugby on an up fish train from Grimsby to Banbury in early 1950s. The Great Northern Railway Class H4, which was classified as K3 by the LNER after grouping, was a class of 2-6-0 steam locomotive designed for mixed-traffic work by Nigel Gresley (later Sir Nigel Gresley). The type was a more powerful development of the earlier H3 (LNER K2) class and was notable at the time because the 6 foot diameter boilers were the largest fitted to any British locomotive to that date. After formation of the London and North Eastern Railway on 1st January 1923, the type became known as class K3 and was adopted as an LNER standard design. The first ten locomotives were built at the GNR's Doncaster works in 1920. Six further batches were built by the LNER's Doncaster and Darlington works, and by private contractors Armstrong Whitworth, Robert Stephenson and Company and the North British Locomotive Company. The last examples were delivered in 1937, with a total of 193 locomotives having been built.

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