GER ‘T26’ (LNER ‘E4’) No. 490 0
Built at Stratford Works in 1894, No. 490 was one of a class of 100, then known as ‘T26s’, introduced in 1891 to the design of James Holden. Like so many locomotives of its period, it had a long working life as a mixed traffic engine, operating through LNER ownership in the ‘E4’ class as numbers 7490, 7802 and latterly 2785. Upon nationalisation, it became No. 62785. 2785. When it was withdrawn in November 1959 it was not only the last of its class in service, but also the last 2-4-0 tender locomotive working in Britain. Designated as power class ‘1MT’, it was used on many secondary routes in East Anglia, though for a period in the 1930s six classmates were allocated to the North Eastern area to work over the Stainmore Route. ‘E4s’ were favourites of members of the Cambridge University Railway Club, and were used on some of the club’s steam driving activities in the 1950s. One of the undergraduates, John Coiley, would later become keeper of the National Railway Museum, where No. 490 was put on display in 1975. Cosmetically restored to full Great Eastern condition and lined blue livery, it was initially displayed at Clapham Transport Museum, then York until around 1990, when it went to Bressingham Steam Museum in Norfolk with ‘J17’ No. 8217 going the other way, north, to York. There is no further restoration required and physically it is very much as withdrawn in terms of boiler and mechanical condition. There are no plans to return it to operating condition.