Between 1888 and 1901, Matthew Holmes had 168 0-6-0 goods locomotives built for the North British which were designated class C. 138 of these had been built at the NBR's own Cowlairs works, while 15 each came from Neilson & Co. and from Sharp, Stewart & Co. In general they were of a standard design with five foot wheels, inside cylinders and Stephenson valve gear. But the cylinders had a relatively huge diameter of 18 inches.

There had already been another similar class C designed by Drummond and built 32 times in 1876 and 1877. Holmes took these and rebuilt them to the same standard as his own class C between 1898 and 1903. Between 1913 and 1923, all 200 locomotives were fitted with a new boiler with a pressure of 165 instead of 150 psi and a larger cab.

drawing of the original state

Locomotive Magazine, February 1944

The LNER designated all original Holmes locomotives as J36 and all rebuilt Drummond locomotives as J32. 213 were taken over by British Railways in 1948. The last ones were withdrawn in 1967, being the last steam locomotives in service in Scotland. No. 673 „Maude” was the only one preserved, currently being on static display.

Based on the K class for mixed traffic, Reid commissioned the J class for express service. Like the first series of the K class, the J had a wheel diameter of six feet six inches. The dimensions of the cylinders were also the same. In order to be able to run the line from Edinburgh to Carlisle non-stop, they received a larger tender and a smaller boiler. From the original design, which was designated as D29 by the LNER from 1923, six were made in 1909 and another ten in 1911. They were named after characters from Sir Walter Scott's stories, which is why they were also known as the “Scott Class”.

Also in 1911, two more machines were built with a superheater of the Schmidt type, which were later designated as the D30/1. For operation with superheated steam, adjustments were made to the arrangement of the piston valves, which led to a higher position of the boiler. Between 1914 and 1920, further 25 production machines were built, this time with superheaters of the Robinson type. These became the D30/2 at the LNER.

No. 896 “Dandie Dinmont”

Locomotive Magazine, September 1909

As early as the 1920s, the D29s were increasingly being used for stopping services, fish trains and as pilots, while the D30s continued to be used for express trains. Nothing changed when most D29s got superheaters between 1925 and 1936. After that, the rebuilt ones were called D29/2 and the non-rebuilt ones D29/1. In the 1930s they were increasingly relocated to more rural regions. When British Railways was founded in 1948, a total of 35 class J locomotives were taken over. The last D29s were retired as early as 1952 and the D30 only between 1957 and 1960.

Dugald Drummond undertook the first trials with a powerful 4-4-0 express locomotive of the North British Railway in the 1870s. These twelve examples were from Neilson & Co. and from North British's own workshops and were delivered from 1877 onwards. They were also known as the Abbotsford class after one of the examples, or the Waverley class, named after the Edinburgh train station from which they departed.

From 1884, a total of 48 similar locomotives were built in several batches, which were designed by William P. Reid. The cylinders and the coupled wheels had the same dimensions, but the boiler was larger and worked at a higher pressure. In 1902 and 1904, the older types were also rebuilt to resemble the newer locomotives.

With the introduction of the new class scheme at North British in 1913, all were assigned to Class M, which also included other locos. Five machines of the first type were retired before 1923, all others came with the London & North Eastern group. Due to their different origins, the LNER classified the locomotives in different classes. Engines built from 1884 became the D31, those converted in 1902 became the D27 and those converted in 1904 became the D28. While the converted ones were retired by 1926, the last example of the D31 even survived the founding of British Railways and was in service until 1953.

In 1900, the North British Railway received 20 0-6-0 tank locomotives from Neilson, which were intended for shunting services and local freight trains. 20 more from Sharp followed in 1901. They were in service throughout the North British network and all came to the LNER in 1923 as class J83. Only one locomotive was retired prior to the formation of British Railways, in 1947. The rest were retired by 1962. 37 of the 40 locomotives reached the one million mile mark within their service life, and one even managed two millions.

When the North British Railway needed new express locomotives which were much more powerful than the existing 4-4-0, William Reid developed the Atlantic that was later called class H. It was the only five-axle tender locomotive of this railway and also the most powerful one. The decision not to design a ten-wheeler and to use only two driving axles may have been influenced by the tight curves in the NBR network.

The first batch of 14 was built by the North British Locomotive Co. in 1906. Although they initially had problems with mass balancing and were too long for the existing turntables, they quickly became the flagship of the NBR. When it was realized that there was the need for more of these powerful locomotives, six more were built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in 1911. Two additional locomotives were built in 1925 by North British, which were equipped with superheaters. 

All remaining locomotives were superheated starting in 1915. To distinguish them, the non-superheated locomotives were renamed to class I and renamed back to H when the superheater was installed. This process took until 1926, so even the LNER used a similar approach by calling the last non-superheated ones class C10 while the others were class C11.

After the introduction of the LNER Pacifics, the Atlantics were used for less important trains. They were finally withdrawn between 1933 and 1937. The “Midlothian” was selected for preservation, but since the order to preserve it came too late, it was already partially scrapped. Although it was rebuilt, the steel shortage in World War II sealed its fate. So it was cut up and the material was used for the production of aircraft.