Locomotives of the North Staffordshire Railway

The North Staffordshire Railway built or had constructed for it, approximately 350 locomotives. Until the company established Stoke railway works at Stoke-upon-Trent in 1864, a variety of engineering firms supplied locomotives. The company became more self-reliant as time went on, and by the beginning of the 20th century virtually all new engines were produced at Stoke works.

The North Staffordshire Railway became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923 and its locomotives were taken into LMS stock. With the engine standardisation policy of the LMS, under the chairmanship of Sir Josiah Stamp, the relatively small number of NSR locomotives made them obvious candidates for early withdrawal and scrapping. Withdrawals started in 1927, and by April 1939 all locomotives in the capital stock had been withdrawn.

Standard gauge locomotives
Engines renumbered with "A" as a suffix to the number were said to be on the duplicate list. The duplicate list comprised engines coming towards the end of their working lives and allowed the numbers to be freed up for use by new stock and in many cases to allow classes of new engines to be numbered in consecutive series.

Preservation
Two NSR locomotives are preserved. NSR No. 2, an 0-6-2T New L class (one of the four constructed in 1923) and the battery electric locomotive. Both formed part of the national collection at the National Railway Museum but in 2016 ownership of the New L class locomotive was transferred to the Foxfield Railway where the locomotive is now on display.