Although called “Stanier class 2”, these ten 0-4-4T passenger locomotives had actually been designed after Midland-style practices. As Stanier had just become Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LMS in 1932 when they were built, he most likely just designed some details, while much of the work can be attributed to Fowler. These locomotives had been ordered since the LMS already had several power class 1P 0-4-4T locomotives and decided that they needed a larger variant in the 2P class.

They were built with spare G6-type boilers which were usually fitted to Johnson 0-6-0 goods locomotives. They were only a few years old and had a Belpaire firebox, but no superheater. The driving wheels had a diameter of five feet an seven inches (1,702 mm) for sufficient speed on longer runs. In 1934, two were fitted with vacuum control gear for use in push-pull trains. The others only received another type of push-pull controls in times of British Railways. Nine were withdrawn in 1959 and the last one in 1962.