GER Class F48

The GER Class F48 was a series of inside-cylinder 0-6-0 goods locomotives designed by James Holden and built at Stratford Works from 1900, forming part of the large fleet of standard goods engines that Holden produced during his tenure as GER Locomotive Superintendent from 1885 to 1907. The F48 was a late development of Holden's GER goods engine programme, incorporating improvements accumulated over fifteen years of goods locomotive design at Stratford, and was built in modest numbers for the mixed freight and goods working of the GER's East Anglian network.

Holden had rationalised the GER's goods fleet considerably during his tenure, replacing the diverse collection of types inherited from his predecessors with a series of standardised inside-cylinder 0-6-0 designs that shared common components and could be maintained economically at Stratford and the GER's smaller depots. The F48 followed this pattern: inside cylinders, a saturated parallel boiler of generous dimensions, and 4 ft 11 in coupled wheels appropriate for the mixed goods work of the East Anglian agricultural and industrial network. The GER's goods traffic included agricultural produce from Norfolk and Suffolk, coal inbound to the eastern counties, and the growing Felixstowe dock traffic.

The F48 Class worked GER goods services from 1900 and passed to the LNER at the 1923 Grouping. The LNER continued to use former-GER goods classes on their established routes, and the F48s gave service into the British Railways era before eventual withdrawal. None was preserved.