LNER locomotive numbering and classification

A number of different numbering and classification schemes were used for the locomotives owned by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and its constituent companies. This page explains the principal systems that were used. The following abbreviations for the constituent companies are used on this page:

• Principal Constituents

Great Central Railway (GCR), Great Eastern Railway (GER), Great Northern Railway (GNR), Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR), Hull and Barnsley Railway (HBR), North British Railway (NBR), and North Eastern Railway (NER)

• Minor Companies (absorbed between July 1923 and July 1924)

Colne Valley and Halstead Railway (CV&HR), East and West Yorkshire Union Railway (E&WYUR), and Mid-Suffolk Light Railway (MSLR)

• Later Additions

Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR) - absorbed October 1936

Ex-Metropolitan Railway steam locomotives (via the London Passenger Transport Board) - absorbed November 1937

• For information about individual classes and locomotives, see: Locomotives of the London and North Eastern Railway

Numbering

Constituent Companies

The constituent companies of the LNER operated no specific numbering system. Locomotives were numbered in a range starting from 1, with new locomotives being given numbers according to one of three different ways:

• New numbers at the end of the existing series;
• 'Significant numbers' (e.g. the first of the GER's new passenger locomotive class built from 1900 was numbered......
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