GER E22

The GER Class E22 was a series of inside-cylinder 0-6-0 side-tank locomotives designed by James Holden and built at Stratford Works from 1891, serving as the GER's standard goods shunting and station pilot tank engine during the 1890s and 1900s. The E22 was part of Holden's programme of standardising the GER's tank engine fleet, producing a versatile and maintainable shunting type that could be deployed across the GER's extensive network of goods yards, docks sidings, and station approaches.

The 0-6-0T configuration — six coupled wheels with side tanks but no trailing axle — gave the E22 good adhesion for shunting and trip working while the compact overall length allowed operation in the restricted spaces of goods yards and dock sidings. Holden's characteristic clean design produced a neat and well-proportioned tank engine that was both practical and economical to maintain at Stratford and the GER's smaller depots. The GER's goods traffic at this period included agricultural produce, coal imports, and the growing container traffic through the Harwich port facilities.

The E22s gave long service on GER and LNER goods and shunting duties. Several survived into British Railways ownership. None was preserved, though the GER tank engine tradition is represented in the preserved fleet by the Class Y14 (LNER J15) example 564 at the North Norfolk Railway, representing the standard GER tender goods engine that was the E22's contemporaneous companion in freight work.