NER Class V [LNER C6]

The NER Class V, designated LNER C6 after the 1923 Grouping, was a series of inside-cylinder 4-4-2 Atlantic express passenger locomotives designed by Wilson Worsdell and introduced at Gateshead Works from 1903 — the NER's first Atlantic locomotives and among the most important express developments in British railway history. Worsdell's decision to adopt the Atlantic wheel arrangement for the NER's principal East Coast Main Line express services placed the NER at the forefront of British express locomotive practice in the early twentieth century, and the Class V Atlantics quickly demonstrated that the 4-4-2 configuration — with its larger firebox enabled by the trailing axle — could sustain the continuous high steaming rates demanded by fast, heavy Anglo-Scottish expresses in a way that the 4-4-0 could not.

The Atlantic's advantage over the 4-4-0 lay primarily in the firebox: the trailing carrying axle allowed the firebox to extend behind the coupled wheels and be made significantly wider and longer than was possible on a 4-4-0, where the firebox was constrained between the rear driving wheels. A larger firebox meant a larger grate, which meant more fire, more steam, and more sustained power on long runs at high speed. For the ECML expresses — the non-stop London–Edinburgh runs, the heavy sleeping-car trains, the Pullman services that were the prestige of East Coast operation — this sustained steaming capacity was exactly what was needed.

The Class V Atlantics worked the NER's top ECML express duties with considerable success from 1903, and Raven continued developing the Atlantic design into the superheated V/09 Class (LNER C7) Z Class from 1906, which became one of the finest Atlantic types in Britain. None of the original Wilson Worsdell Class V/C6 Atlantics was preserved, though Raven's developed C7 is similarly unpreserved.