RailPictures.Net Photo: 40644 British Railways Ex-LMS Class 2P 4-4-0 at Hurlford, Nr.Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom by Steve Armitage
Prior to the arrival of true LMS designs, the '2P' 4-4-0s of which 138 were built from 1926 to 1932 under the regime of Sir Henry Fowler, were of obvious Midland Railway lineage. The basic design dated as far back as 1882 with the earlier MR Samuel Johnson versions. The largest constituent of the LMS though was the London & North Western Railway. How it must have galled the artisans at Crewe LNWR works to be building designs that owed so much to their old rival! The 2Ps were allocated widely across the LMS system but the Scottish sheds always seemed to turn out their locomotives with particular pride as this fine portrait (by a skilled but unknown photographer) illustrates. 40644 was withdrawn in 1959 but some 2Ps survived until late 1962.
