Metropolitan Railway K Class

The Metropolitan Railway K Class was a group of six 2-6-4T steam tank locomotives, numbered 111 to 116, built by Armstrong Whitworth in 1925 for the Metropolitan Railway. They followed the pattern of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway N class 2-6-0 designed by Richard Maunsell, part of a family of about 200 mogul engines, and were assembled from parts manufactured at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. The final design was the work of the Metropolitan Railway's George Hally, and the boilers came from Robert Stephenson and Company of Darlington. Unusual details included footsteps below the buffer beam and curved handrails on either side of the smokebox. The engines worked heavy freight trains along the Metropolitan mainline, including coal for the power station at Neasden, with occasional passenger turns. In 1937 all six passed to the London and North Eastern Railway, which renumbered them 6158 to 6163 and classified them L2. All were withdrawn and scrapped between 1943 and 1948.