Built: 1898 – 1951

Built for: NER / LNER / BR

Designed by: Wilson Worsdell

Duties: shunting and station pilot

Wheels: 0-6-0T

Highlights

• All-new model

• Realistic fire-box flicker

• Sprung buffers

• Pre-fitted speaker for ease of Digital Sound installation

History

The J72 Class of tank engine possess the unique record of having been constructed at varying periods, over a span of 54 years under three railway company ownerships: NER, LNER and BR.

Designed by T.W.Worsdell, and originally designated Class E1 by him, the J72 was introduced in 1898 for light goods and shunting duties. They were a further development of the near-identical J71 Class, which had slightly larger diameter wheels, and were built at Darlington and Doncaster Works and by the Armstrong-Whitworth Company.

85 J72s were built, the last LNER versions in 1925, then, after nationalization, between

1949-1951, British Railways built a further batch of 28 identical to the original 1898

design making a class total of 113.

During the late ‘40s, a number of J72s were fitted with vacuum braking, enabling them to

work on station pilots and carriage shunting duties.