It was designed by James Anderson for banking duties on the Lickey Incline in Worcestershire (south of Birmingham), England.

Only a year later it was renumbered to 58100 by BR, since adding 40000 to its number (as was done with the majority of LMS engines) would have put it in the 6XXXX ex-LNER series.

[2] With a weight of 105 long tons (107 t) and ten 4 ft 7+1⁄2 in (1.410 m) diameter driving wheels, Bertha had a tractive effort of 43,300 lbf (193 kN).

It, the LMS Garratts, and the LNER Class U1 Garratt were the only locomotives not given a power classification by either the LMS or BR, either because the bankers were designed specifically for the job of providing extra power at slow speeds and were not suitable for normal train working, or because their starting tractive effort fell outside the system and it was not worth extending it for so few machines.

The engine was withdrawn on 19 May 1956 and scrapped by Derby Works in September 1957,[citation needed] having covered 838,856 miles (1,350,008 km), mostly on the Lickey.