LNER Class P1

The LNER Class P1 was a class of two 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley as two of the most powerful freight locomotives ever built for a British railway. They were initially intended as a more powerful 2-10-0 version of the earlier Class O2 2-8-0s, for coal trains between Peterborough and London and between Immingham and Wath. Doncaster Works completed the first, number 2393, in June 1925 and the second, number 2394, in November 1925. They carried boosters on the trailing axle to raise tractive effort, but these proved troublesome and were removed in 1937 and 1938. The pair could handle 100-wagon coal trains but were coal-hungry and ran only between New England and Ferme Park, and both were withdrawn and scrapped in July 1945.