At the time of Alexander McDonnell's appointment as Locomotive Superintendent of the North Eastern Railway (NER), the most modern express passenger locomotives were the 2-4-0s of Edward Fletcher's '901' class,[2] 55 of which had been built between 1872 and 1882,[3] and which were giving good service.
[3] McDonnell set about designing a new class of express passenger locomotives, which incorporated a number of departures from established NER practice.
Some of these were significant, such as the use of a leading bogie on an express locomotive; others were purely cosmetic, such as the shape of the chimney.
[12] Initially placed in service on main line duties, they were soon relegated to less important jobs.
These included the Newcastle and Carlisle line, which had several of the Hawthorn engines, and secondary services from York, Malton, Whitby and Scarborough.