In BR days they were used extensively across the system, being prevalent on the London Midland region and to a lesser extent elsewhere, notably on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, an East Anglian line that had previously been joint owned by the LMS and LNER, where they became the dominant locomotive type.

[2] The design was noted for its American looks – the running-plates were positioned at a high level and a gap left ahead of the cylinders.

The utilitarian appearance was a deliberate design decision as there are sketches which show the locomotive with conventional curved running plates.

Since 43106 had already been selected as the best of the remaining small group, a 'search party' was despatched on Easter Tuesday to survey the damage.

It was steamed for the final time by British Railways on 1 August 1968 and departed at about 15:30 with one member of its new owning consortium on board.

On 2 August, it continued on to its new life in preservation on the Severn Valley Railway appearing on the front page of the Shropshire Journal with three of its new owners giving it a much needed clean.

A major overhaul of the locomotive was completed in 2009, but shortly afterwards suffered a derailment at Hampton Loade and required repairs.