Midland Railway 240 Class

The Midland Railway 240 Class was a series of inside-cylinder 2-4-0 express and mixed-traffic tender locomotives designed by Matthew Kirtley, the long-serving Locomotive Superintendent of the Midland Railway from 1844 to 1873, and built at Derby Works from 1867. The 240 Class represented Kirtley's definitive mixed-traffic express type in the latter years of his tenure, providing the Midland Railway with a capable and standardised 2-4-0 for the railway's growing express passenger and mixed-traffic requirements as the route from London to the Midlands and the North consolidated its position as one of the most important in Britain.

Kirtley was one of the founding fathers of the Midland Railway's locomotive tradition, having been appointed at Derby in 1844 when the railway was newly formed from the amalgamation of three earlier companies. His thirty years at Derby spanned the railway's transformation from a minor regional operator to a major national railway reaching London, Yorkshire, and the North West, and his locomotive designs provided the motive power for this expansion. The 240 Class 2-4-0 was intended for the Midland's express and semi-fast passenger services, where the four-coupled wheel arrangement gave better adhesion than the single-driver types for the moderate grades of the Midland main line, while still providing adequate speed for the express schedules of the period.

The Midland Railway's express services of the 1860s and 1870s operated over the main line from London (initially via the GNR to King's Cross, then from 1868 via the Midland's own London Extension to St Pancras) to the major cities of the Midlands and the North. The 240 Class worked these services alongside Kirtley's other express types until progressively replaced by Johnson's more modern 4-4-0 and single-driver designs from the mid-1870s. None was preserved.