LNWR Greater Britain

The LNWR Greater Britain Class was a series of compound 2-2-2-2 express passenger locomotives designed by Francis Webb and built at Crewe Works from 1891, representing Webb's third and most elaborate attempt to produce a successful compound express locomotive after the Experiment and Dreadnought Classes had failed to deliver the promised efficiency gains. The Greater Britain Class used larger cylinders and a higher boiler pressure than the Dreadnoughts, and Webb was sufficiently confident in the design to name the lead locomotive Greater Britain — a name carrying the full imperial pride of the 1890s — and to name further examples after the constituent nations of the British Empire.

Webb retained the 2-2-2-2 wheel arrangement of the Dreadnought with its two uncoupled pairs of driving wheels, insisting despite all evidence that the compound principle made this arrangement workable. The Greater Britain Class used the same fundamental configuration: inside high-pressure cylinders driving the rear axle, outside low-pressure cylinders driving the front axle, with no mechanical connection between the two driving axles. The operational problems of the Dreadnought — particularly the independent slipping of the two driving axles — persisted, and Webb's repeated attempts to cure them by adjusting the valve timing were largely unsuccessful.

The class is particularly associated with a celebrated incident during the 1895 Race to the North — the celebrated competitive race between the East Coast and West Coast railway companies to be first with overnight sleeper trains from London to Aberdeen — in which a Greater Britain Class locomotive worked part of the LNWR's contribution to the West Coast effort. The WCML company cut their Euston–Carlisle timing dramatically during the Race to the North, and Webb's compounds were pressed into service despite their unreliability. Despite the compounds' known faults, the LNWR's share of the Race to the North was creditable, aided by Ramsbottom's legacy of reliable civil engineering on the West Coast route.

All 10 Greater Britain Class engines were rebuilt by George Whale as simple-expansion locomotives from 1903. None was preserved in original compound form.