GNR No.1

GNR No. 1 was a 2-2-2 single-driver express locomotive built for the Great Northern Railway in 1848 by Hawthorn & Co of Newcastle, representing one of the earliest express passenger engines operated by the GNR in its opening years. The GNR had been incorporated in 1846 and opened its main line between London and York in stages from 1848, and its initial locomotive fleet was sourced from outside manufacturers as the company established itself.

The 2-2-2 wheel arrangement — a single pair of leading wheels, one large driving axle, and a trailing pair — was the standard British express configuration of the late 1840s and 1850s, the Patentee type that had been standard since Robert Stephenson's influential design of 1833. GNR No. 1's 7 ft driving wheels placed it at the larger end of contemporary express practice, appropriate for the relatively level main line the GNR was opening between London King's Cross and the North.

The early GNR locomotive fleet under Archibald Sturrock — the GNR's first Locomotive Superintendent, appointed in 1850 — was a mixed collection of early types. No. 1 was one of the opening-era locomotives that Sturrock inherited and worked with as the GNR's traffic grew through the early 1850s. It was withdrawn as the GNR's fleet developed under Sturrock and subsequently Patrick Stirling, whose famous 8-foot Singles from 1870 would transform the GNR's express performance. None of the GNR's earliest express locomotives from this period was preserved.