THE STORY BEHIND THE LOCOMOTIVE A goods engine with a wider story.Growing freight and mineral traffic in the 1890s called for more powerful locomotives. Samuel Waite Johnson’s M Class 0-6-0 became the Midland Railway’s premier goods engine at the turn of the century. Built between 1892 and 1903, the class could also work vacuum-braked passenger trains, giving these goods engines a wider role. Most were built by outside contractors, with just ten constructed at Derby. The design also travelled beyond the Midland: five locomotives went to the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway, while the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway received sixteen and designated them Class D. That shared ancestry explains the choice of Midland crimson, S&DJR blue and distinctive M&GN brown liveries. Surviving Midland engines with their original boilers passed to the LMS in 1923; the LNER took over the remaining M&GN examples in 1936. Elsewhere in the family, rebuilding with different boilers produced familiar 2F and 3F locomotives, some of which went on to serve British Railways.  837001 • Midland fully lined crimson |
The original ‘B’ boiler appearance.
Rapido’s model captures this earlier chapter of the class. None of the engines retaining their original ‘B’ boilers reached nationalisation, making these models suited to pre-grouping and grouping-era scenes. |
RAPIDO’S OO GAUGE MODEL Choose from 16 versions in Midland, S&DJR, LMS, M&GNJR and LNER guises, with era-specific details and tooling variations to suit individual locomotives. Pre-order the version that fits your railway with TMC. - Detailed diecast metal and injection-moulded construction.
- MoPower stay-alive, factory-fitted speaker and 21-pin DCC socket.
- Sprung buffers and front and rear NEM coupling pockets.
- Firebox flicker with dynamic fire draw on DCC-fitted models.
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