GER Class N31

The GER Class N31 was a class of eighty-two 0-6-0 steam locomotives designed by James Holden for the Great Eastern Railway. Eighteen passed to the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at the 1923 grouping and received the LNER classification J14.

History
These goods locomotives had 17.5 x cylinders, 4 ft driving wheels, and a 160 lbf/in2 boiler. Eighty-one were built at Stratford Works between 1893 and 1898.

Class 127
In addition, when the Class 127 locomotive was rebuilt from compound to simple in 1895, it was then included into Class N31.

Performance
They were not particularly successful locomotives. Although nicknamed Swifts, they were sluggish locomotives, due to the placement of the valve chests underneath the cylinders.

Withdrawals
Withdrawals started in 1908, and by the end of 1922, only eighteen were left in service. The LNER allocated numbers 7000 higher than the locomotives' GER numbers, but withdrawals continued, and by 1925 the class was extinct.