LNWR Class G2 (Super D)

Hewitt Pearson Montague Beames was the LNWR's chief mechanical engineer from 1909 to 1922 and developed the Super D from earlier 0-8-0 designs. Francis Webb had built the first LNWR 0-8-0 (the A Class) in 1893, and successive LNWR engineers (Whale, Bowen Cooke) had developed the type through several iterations. By the 1910s the LNWR was running heavy West Coast main line goods at the limit of two-cylinder 0-6-0 power, and a more powerful 0-8-0 was needed.

Beames' Super D was the result, designed in 1920 as a superheated successor to the earlier saturated 0-8-0s. The design used the LNWR's standard Joy valve gear and a Belpaire boiler, with the addition of a Schmidt superheater that gave the class its "Super D" nickname (from the LNWR's D class designation for superheated 0-8-0s).

60 engines were built at Crewe Works in 1921 and 1922. The class was effectively the LNWR's last new design before Grouping and was the company's standard heavy mineral and freight engine.

The Super Ds spent their working lives on West Coast main line heavy freight. They worked the Crewe-to-Carlisle goods, the cross-Pennine fitted services, and the Manchester-to-Liverpool freight runs. The class was a familiar sight on the heavy gradients of the Lake District main line, where their pulling power was particularly valued.

Withdrawals began in the late 1950s as Stanier 8Fs and BR Standard Class 9Fs took over the heaviest work. The class was decimated through the early 1960s, with the last in regular service withdrawn in 1964 from Edge Hill, Liverpool.

49395 is the surviving Super D. Built at Crewe Works in 1921 as part of the original Beames batch, it spent its working life on heavy West Coast freight services and was withdrawn from BR service in 1962 from Edge Hill (Liverpool). Selected for the National Collection on the recommendation of the LMS's preservation policy, it is currently displayed at the National Railway Museum in York.

49395 has been kept in static display condition for many years and has not been steamed in preservation. It is the only surviving LNWR 0-8-0 of any type and one of the very few preserved LNWR locomotives in any form.

The class was painted from new in LNWR plain unlined black, with LNWR shaded numerals on the cabsides. The LMS from 1923 painted the class in plain LMS black. British Railways from 1948 painted the survivors in plain unlined black with the early lion-and-wheel emblem. The preserved 49395 has been kept in LMS plain black throughout its preservation career.