The locomotive, numbered 127, emerged from Stratford Works in 1888, having been built to a 'Departmental and Personal' account (DP203)[1] rather than the normal 'letter' account, indicating its experimental status.
It was designed using the two-cylinder Worsdell/Von Borries compound system, and therefore its initial design may have been by Thomas William Worsdell, before he left the Great Eastern Railway for the Locomotive Superintendency of the North Eastern Railway in 1885.[2]
The locomotive had an 18-inch (457 mm) diameter high-pressure cylinder, and a 26-inch (660 mm) diameter low-pressure cylinder; both had a 24-inch (610 mm) stroke. This arrangement was the same as that used on the Class G16 passenger 4-4-0 locomotives.[1][3]
It was reboilered and renumbered 935 in 1890,[1] and rebuilt as a simple-expansion locomotive in 1895,[2] whereupon it was considered part of the Class N31, and was withdrawn in 1913.[1]
