LNER J38 Class

The LNER J38 Class was a series of thirty-five inside-cylinder 0-6-0 heavy goods tender locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley and built at Darlington Works in 1926 for the Scottish Area of the LNER, providing heavy goods motive power for the former-North British Railway mineral and goods routes in Scotland where the J38's robust inside-cylinder design gave reliable and economical freight haulage on the demanding gradients of the former-NBR network.

Gresley designed the J38 specifically for Scottish service, and it was closely related to his J39 Class built for the rest of the LNER network, differing primarily in having a lower pitched boiler and shorter chimney to comply with the more restrictive loading gauge of the former-North British Railway routes through Edinburgh, the Borders, and Fife. This distinction between the J38 (for Scotland) and J39 (for the rest of the network) reflected the practical realities of operating a post-Grouping railway over infrastructure built to varying Victorian standards.

The J38s worked Scottish heavy goods duties throughout the LNER and BR eras, hauling coal from the Lanarkshire and Fife coalfields, mineral traffic from the Scottish industrial areas, and general heavy goods on the former-NBR main lines and branches. None was preserved.