GNR C2

The GNR C2 Class was a series of inside-cylinder 0-6-0 goods tender locomotives built for the Great Northern Railway in 1893 under the superintendency of Patrick Stirling, who had been Locomotive Superintendent of the GNR since 1866 and was by then approaching the end of his remarkable career. The C2 represented a development of the GNR's standard goods engine line that Stirling had been producing at Doncaster Works throughout his long tenure, providing additional goods capacity for the expanding traffic on the GNR's main line between London King's Cross and the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coalfields.

The C2 followed Patrick Stirling's established GNR goods engine formula: inside cylinders, 5 ft 2 in coupled driving wheels appropriate for mixed goods and mineral work, and a straightforward parallel boiler designed for reliable steam production on the sustained runs between London and the North. Stirling had consistently favoured inside cylinders throughout his career at the GNR — a preference rooted in his belief that they gave cleaner running and better accessibility than outside cylinders — and the C2 continued this tradition in what would prove to be one of his final goods classes before his death in 1895.

After Stirling's death the GNR passed to H.A. Ivatt, who took a different approach to goods engine design and introduced superheated outside-cylinder types. The C2 Class passed to the LNER at the 1923 Grouping and was eventually withdrawn without any examples entering preservation. Note: the GNR C2 is a distinct class from the well-known LBSCR C2 Marsh Radial Tank; the same LNER classification letter was used for different pre-Grouping classes.