They were designed by Wilson Worsdell for the North Eastern Railway (NER) as express passenger locomotives.

In the early part of the twentieth century, the main express passenger services of the NER were mostly being hauled by 4-4-0 locomotives.

The southern partner of the NER in the East Coast route was the Great Northern Railway, which since 1898 had built a number of 4-4-2 locomotives (GNR Class C1) which proved capable of hauling the heaviest expresses of the period; and so Worsdell decided upon the same wheel arrangement for a new class for the NER.

[2] By the end of 1920, most of the class were allocated to the two main Newcastle-area depots, ten at Gateshead and eight at Heaton; but the remaining two were at York.

532 in January 1943;[6] later that year, the nineteen surviving locomotives were allotted new numbers 2930–48, but by the time the scheme was published, no.