69023 Joem, NER Class E1 (LNER J72)

Completed at Darlington in April 1951, No. 69023 belongs to a design first drawn up by Wilson Worsdell for the North Eastern Railway in 1898. British Railways was still building them more than fifty years later, which makes the J72 one of the longest-lived designs on the British network.

She was delivered to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in 1969 and restored there, having been bought privately by R. Ainsworth, who named her Joem after his parents Joseph and Emily. The North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group bought her and took her to Grosmont in January 1983, and she has been in the group's ownership since. She carries a lined green livery in the NER and BR pattern rather than the plain black the class normally wore.

Location not established; see below. Status last confirmed August 2026. Subject to verification.

Owned by the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group. Has worked on the Keighley & Worth Valley and Wensleydale Railways; reported back at the group’s Darlington base for boiler repairs. That base is not a public site with an entry here, so no location is claimed.

No owner or livery is recorded here; the source consulted gives the location and status but not those details.