The GER Class S56 was a class of 0-6-0T steams designed by James Holden for the Great Eastern Railway.

Together with some rebuilt examples of GER Class R24, they passed to the London and North Eastern Railway at the grouping in 1923, and received the LNER classification J69.

They were sold to the War Department in October 1940,[3] where they were used on the Melbourne and Longmoor Military Railways.

[2] The remaining locomotives were renumbered 8617–8636 in order of construction; however gaps were left where the locomotives sold to the War Department would have been.

At nationalisation in 1948, the remainder passed to British Railways, who added 60000 to their number.