For enthusiasts, researchers and modellers of the Great Eastern Railway

Y Class 2-4-0, 4-4-0 1859-1866

307-416

807 0042

GERS Collection 807 0042

R. Sinclair 6-ft. 1-ins. outside cylinder 2-4-0 tender engine design. A total of 110 locomotives were built by various builders over a seven year period, by which time they formed around 20% of the entire GER locomotive stock, bringing some much-needed standardisation to the locomotives of the company. The earliest engines initially had only a weatherboard for the protection of the crew, but the remainder had generous cabs of various patterns. Twenty of the class were built by Schneider et Cie of le Creusot, France, the first British locomotives to be built abroad since the 1840s.

Although intended for goods traffic, the Y class were used on passenger trains from the outset, and were very capable machines. Most engines were rebuilt with new boilers of various patterns from 1871 onwards, and twenty were reconstructed as 4-4-0s between 1874 and 1880. Most of the later survivors were fitted with Westinghouse brakes from the early 1880s. Many other detail alterations were made to the cabs, splashers smokeboxes etc. over the years. The engines were withdrawn between 1883 and 1894.