The initial 20 of George Hughes' '8' or 'Dreadnought' class 4-6-0s for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway proved to look a great deal better than they performed. They were poor steamers, uneconomic on coal and very unreliable. Much modification and rebuilding by both the L&YR and the LMS (who produced an additional 35) eventually produced a very capable locomotive class, the last of which survived until 1951. Pictured in the early 1930s outside the old Queen Street Depot at York, is the last of the L&YR batch as LMS No. 10419 (L&YR 1518). Built at Horwich in Nov. 1908 and withdrawn in Jan. 1934.

© Steve Armitage Collection