0-4-4 Steam Locomotives in Great Britain

Class 2P (Locobase 21332)

Data from "0-4-4 Tank Engine" supplied in a 31 May 2026 email by Alexander Blessing from his collection; and "0-4-4 Passenger Engine-Nos 41906-41909" diagram from the LMS Drawing Office, Derby from Ex-LMS Locomotives diagram compilation by David Faulkner supplied in July 2025 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. See also "LMS Stanier Class 2 0-4-4T" in Wikipedia at [], last accessed 13 June 2026. For a brief description of "pull and push" operation, see "Push-Pull units and Autocoaches" at [], last accessed 13 June 2026. (Thanks to Alexander Blessing for 31 May 2026 email by Alexander Blessing suggesting this entry be included in Locobase.)

Although described as "Stanier Class 2P 0-4-4T", these ten engines originally came to life through first Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) Henry Fowler then Ernest Lemon, who succeeded Fowler as CME. Their joint efforts created the short-haul tank design that was approved for production by the LMS board. Then William Stanier succeeded Lemon, but changed little of the final design.

Using recently retired but only lightly used boilers as the baseline, the engines sported a Belpaire firebox of good size. Relatively tall drivers conferred speed on the design.

In 1934, Derby fitted the 6408 and 6409 with "motor gear" to enable the train and a similarly equipped carriage to operate a train in "push-pull" service. LMS's vacuum-operated system used a system of pipes to allowed the driver to operate the regulator and the brakes from the other end of the carriage when the motor train ran carriage-end first.

LMS changed the class series to 1900-1909 in 1946 and BR added a 4 in front of those numbers to create 41900-41909.

British Railways fitted eight of the class for "pull and push" in 1950-1951, 41906 wasn't updated until March 1957. Nine fell off the roster in November 1959 with 41900 withdrawing in March 1962.