The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) maintained a simple, if imprecise, method of classifying its locomotives. However, when it came to numbering them, there were a number of different approaches taken. These methods of numbering and classification are set out here. See also: The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS1) was a British railway company. ...

• Locomotives of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
• British Locomotive and Multiple Unit Numbering and Classification

The London, Midland and Scottish Railway had the largest stock of steam locomotives of any of the Big Four pre-Nationalisation railway companies. ... Jump to: navigation, search A number of different numbering and classification schemes has been used for locomotives and multiple units on Britains railways, and this page explains the principal systems that have been used. ...

Numbering

Post-Grouping Scheme

Shortly after the LMS was formed, it developed a new numbering scheme for all the locomotives that it had inherited. The scheme dealt with two key problems faced by the new company:

• There were many locomotives with the same number, as each of the constituent companies had used a series starting at number 1
• Many of the constituent companies had numbered their locomotives in a somewhat random way, and the renumbering allowed for all locomotives in the same class to be given consecutive numbers and similar classes to be numbered in blocks

These advantages more than overcame the disadvantage of the effort involved in renumbering almost every locomotive and giving them a number that usually bore no relation to its pre-Grouping identity, except for the Midland Railway locomotives that had been renumbered along similar lines in 1907 and mostly retained their numbers. The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom which existed from 1844 to 1922. ...

The system comprised four groups of numbers into which locomotives from a set of railways were numbered:

Within each group, locomotives were numbered in blocks which ran (low to high numbers) as set out below. Within each block, the least powerful locomotives took the lowest numbers. The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom which existed from 1844 to 1922. ... Fenchurch Street Station The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR) was a British railway company, and line built by that company, linking London eastwards along the north bank of River Thames to Tilbury and Southend. ... Jump to: navigation, search The North Staffordshire Railway was a British railway company which had its roots in an early scheme to build a small plateway from the base of the Cauldon canal up to Cauldon quarries. ... The Stratford-Upon-Avon & Midland Junction Railway (SMJR) was a minor railway company in the United Kingdom. ... The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) was formed in 1846 by the merger of three railway companies - the Grand Junction Railway, London and Birmingham and Manchester and Birmingham. ... Originally called the East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway and opened between 1850 and 1852, the railway linked the docks at Blackwall to Camden Town. ... The Wirral Railway (WR) was originally incorporated in 1863 as the Hoylake Railway (HR), with powers to build lines from Birkenhead to New Brighton, and to Parkgate on the western side of the Wirral Peninsula; the latter line was not built. ... The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was one of the major British railway companies which existed before the 1923 Grouping; although in 1922 it had already entered into a working agreement with the London and North Western Railway. ... Furness Railway was one of the constituent companies of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in the Railways Act 1921. ... The Maryport & Carlisle Railway (M&CR) was incorporated in 1837 to connect the two towns of Carlisle and Maryport. ... The Caledonian Railway was a Scottish Railway company which was grouped in to the London Midland and Scottish Railway by the Railways Act 1921 in 1923. ... Glasgow and South Western Railway formed part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway External link The Glasgow & South Western Railway Association Categories: Corporation stubs | Pre-grouping British railway companies ... The Highland Railway was a Scottish railway company which was grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. ...

New-build LMS locomotives were not allocated any particular numbers, but were fitted into the most appropriate division. The unallocated 13xxx series of numbers were also used for new build LMS types. When the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway locomotives were absorbed on 1930, they were mostly allocated numbers in the Midland Railway series (appropriate, since the SDJR had been jointly owned by the Midland Railway and many MR designs had been used on the SDJR), though some took numbers in the former LNWR series. The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR) was an English railway company jointly owned by the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway. ...

1932 Scheme

In 1932, as older locomotives had been withdrawn and new standard LMS designs were becoming more common, it was decided that modifications should be made to the numbering system. In short, all LMS-built locomotives were to have numbers in the 1-9999 series, with pre-Grouping locomotives being renumbered out of that series as required to accommodate them.

The introduction of this scheme involved renumbering both new and old locomotives to put them in the appropriate sequences. During the remainder of the 1930s, numbers were cleared for new locomotives by simply adding 20000 to the numbers of old locomotives.

Diesel shunters, which started to appear from the early 1930s onwards, were numbered in the same series as steam locomotives. Originally a series commencing at 7400 was planned, but it was soon evident that this would not provide sufficient space and it was replaced by a series commencing at 7050. The prototype mainline diesel locomotives, the first of which was introduced at the end of 1947 just prior to Nationalisation were given the 'significant' numbers 10000 and 10001. Nationalization is the act of taking assets into state ownership. ...

Classification

The Midland Railway introduced a system of locomotive classification based on the power output represented by a locomotive's tractive effort at 50mph (passenger locomotives) or 25mph (goods locomotives). This system was adopted by the LMS and also, from 1948, British Rail. The classification was made up of a number (representing the power output - 0 being low power and 9 high power) and a letter (representing the type of work the locomotive was intended for), e.g. 4F. Over the years there were some modifications to the system, but the basics remained the same. The principal downside with this method of classification was that it did not distinguish between particular classes of locomotive, so many very different types would have been classified '4F' for instance. The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom which existed from 1844 to 1922. ... Tractive effort is the pulling force exerted, normally by a locomotive, though the term could also be used for anything else that hauls a load. ... Logo of British Rail British Railways (BR), later rebranded as British Rail, ran the British railway system from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies in 1948 until its privatisation in stages between 1994 and 1997. ...

The tables below provide definitions for the numbers and letters used:

 F : Freight (from 1928) G : Goods (until 1928) MT: Mixed Traffic (Freight & Passenger) P : Passenger XP: Enhanced Passenger (higher end of power range) 

A single number without a suffix letter was originally used by the LMS on locomotives that were not of Midland Railway origin until 1928. Thereafter, it was used to indicate a mixed traffic locomotive. Where a mixed traffic locomotive fell into different power ranges, dual classification was used, e.g 5P4F. In the 1950s the suffixes 'FA' and 'FB' were used to distinguish between freight locos at the lower and higher ends of the power range. British Railways (BR), later rebranded as British Rail, ran the British railway system, from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies in 1948 until its privatisation in stages between 1994 and 1997. ...