Great Eastern class T26

James Holden designed the T26 as a derivative of the T19, which was intended for mixed service. Accordingly, he used significantly smaller driving wheels, which only had a diameter of 5 feet 8 inches. The boiler pressure was initially reduced from 160 to 140 psi compared to the T19. Beginning in 1898, some got a new boiler, again rated for 160 psi. The last ten locomotives from 1902, which brought the total number to 100, received the new boiler right away.

A special nature of the Great Eastern was that it used air brakes instead of the vacuum brakes which were common in Great Britain. However, since the T26 was also to be used outside of their own network and there it was also to be possible to couple it to foreign cars, it was fitted with both braking systems. The locomotives became class E4 in the LNER and a total of 18 even managed to survive until after the founding of British Railways. Although by this time the era of the 2-4-0 locomotives had long since ended and they were only assigned to the 1MT power class, the last one was only retired in 1959. This made it the last British locomotive with this wheel arrangement. One of the locomotives taken over by BR can today be found in the Bressingham Steam Museum at Norfolk.