Locomotives of the Great North of Scotland Railway

The locomotives of the Great North of Scotland Railway were used by the Great North of Scotland Railway to operate its lines in the far north-east of the country. The railway opened in 1854 with just five 2-4-0 steam locomotives, and from 1862 it used 4-4-0 exclusively as the wheel arrangement for its tender locomotives. When it expanded by amalgamation in 1866, it inherited some locomotives from these companies. It purchased most of its locomotives, although building a small number itself, two at its first works at Kittybrewster, and ten later at Inverurie Locomotive Works.

When the Great North of Scotland became part of the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923, it passed on 122 steam locomotives, 100 4-4-0 tender locomotives and 22 tank engines, all of which were capable of being used on both passenger and goods trains. One locomotive, No. 49, Gordon Highlander, has been preserved as a static exhibit.

The first Great North of Scotland Railway locomotives were 2-4-0 tender engines,built by Wm Fairbairn in Manchester to the design of the locomotive superintendent Daniel Kinnear Clark. Twelve were ordered for the opening of the first line, seven passenger, numbered 1 to 7, and five goods, numbered 8 to 12 and as early GNoSR locomotives were known by the lowest numbered engine in the class, these became Class 1 and Class 8. The goods locomotives had been ordered as 0-6-0 and the specification changed during manufacture, and they were all fitted with Clark's patent smoke preventing system that improved fuel economy. Painted green with black borders, and red buffer beams, there was no protection for the driver or fireman and braking was by wooden blocks on the four wheels of the tender. The railway opened with only five locomotives, and within days one had been seriously damaged in a collision at Kittybrewster and a second had a mechanical fault. Two more locomotives had arrived by the end of 1854, and the order was complete by summer 1855. Four more passenger locomotives were ordered in 1857, and weatherboards and sanding equipment were fitted by 1860. Cabs were added in the 1880s, and the locomotives withdrawn during the 1880s and 1890s, the last in 1898.

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