NER Class P3 / LNER J27

The NER Class P3 / LNER J27 was Wilson Worsdell's heavy mineral 0-6-0 for the North Eastern Railway, designed for the heavy coal traffic from the Durham coalfields to the Tyne and Tees ports. One hundred and fifteen engines were built between 1906 and 1923 at Darlington.

The design used two inside cylinders, 4 ft 7¼ in driving wheels, 18½ × 26 in cylinders, and a 170 psi boiler, the standard Edwardian NER heavy-goods configuration. Production continued under the NER through 1922 and was continued by the LNER into 1923. The 1923 Grouping classified the class as LNER J27.

The J27 was the NER and LNER NE-area heavy-mineral workhorse for over 50 years. The class worked the Durham coalfields traffic to the coastal ports, Tyne, Wear, Tees, through both world wars and into the 1960s. British Railways inherited the class in 1948 and continued it on heavy-mineral work through the 1950s. Withdrawals from 1959; the last J27 in BR service was withdrawn in 1967.

Two J27s are preserved, both at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway: 65033 (originally 2392) and 65894 (originally 2670). They are the only surviving NER heavy-mineral 0-6-0s, and both have given working service on the NYMR, appropriate to the class's long working life on north-east England goods traffic.