LNWR Precedent Class


The London and North Western Railway Precedent Class was a class of seventy 2-4-0 locomotives originally designed for express passenger work.

History

They were designed by F. W. Webb and built by the LNWR's Crewe Works between 1874 and 1882. The numbering was haphazard – while the first twenty carried "new" numbers in a solid block, the remaining fifty carried numbers formerly carried by withdrawn locomotives. All seventy carried names from new, and many of these had been used on withdrawn locomotives.
Sixty-two of the locomotives were "renewed" as Improved Precedent class locomotives between 1893 and 1901.
The remaining eight were rebuilt as Improved Precedents in the 1890s; they retained their thick frames – the renewals had frames.
Two of the unrenewed locomotives were scrapped in 1907, two in the 1910s, with four passing to the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. They were allocated numbers 5000–5003 and were withdrawn between 1929 and 1934; the last, 5001 Snowdon had 20000 added to its number six months before withdrawal in order to release its old number for an LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0.

Accidents and incidents