As a last hurrah for the North Eastern Railway, Sir Vincent Raven designed five of these very impressive locomotives of which only two, Nos. 2400/1 appeared in NER livery as class '4-6-2' (LNER 'A2'). The class prototype No. 2400 stands in Darlington Works yard in December 1922 in photographic grey for its razor sharp official photograph.
Several changes occurred in very short order. The bufferbeam corners were rounded, the trailing truck was re-designed with outside axleboxes, snifting valves were fitted behind the chimney and other minor details were altered. 2400 was built at Darlington and was withdrawn in April 1937. It was named 'Cty of Newcastle' after the grouping. All the class had short lives and were extinct by May 1937.

© Steve Armitage Collection