LMS 5XP Jubilee Class

In 1932, William Stanier arrived at the London Midland & Scottish company to become Chief Mechanical Engineer. His task was to produce a modern standard range of locomotives to allow for withdrawal of many indifferent and varied pre-grouping machines that were difficult and expensive to maintain.

The first design of a new 4-6-0 incorporating a tapered boiler (influenced from the time Stanier spent with GWR) was commissioned in May of 1932. An initial batch of 5 made up the order, with them first appearing on display at Euston in 1934. While this was taking place, a further order was placed in June of 1933 for an additional 108 locomotives, split between Derby, Crewe and North British Locomotive works, with the Derby allocation being rushed into traffic as early as Christmas of 1934.

This haste however, proved somewhat of a back track, as final condition of locomotives invariably differed between batches. Those from Crewe showing influence from the earlier Patriot class. Later on, indecision over appropriate tenders lead to no less than three variants being married to the locomotives until a common design as settled upon.

The first examples of the class were put to work on Euston to Birmingham services, for which they were quickly disliked by their crews, commenting that the new machines were inferior to the Patriot Class they were intended to replace. Testing was thus commenced with locomotives running Euston to Wolverhampton runs where the class was allowed to settle for a while.

By 1939 the entire class were working as expected, with most centred around Birmingham to Euston duties, while some had become scattered around the LMS network.

To commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935, the LMS decided to name one of its 4-6-0s Silver Jubilee, and in April of that year, selected one of the newest examples to could, to service that honour. While a long list of glossy alterations was made to improve her appearance, the most notable was the sudden change from 5642 to 5552 - becoming the official first member of the class. Effectively the two locomotives had switched places, for which very little of this was know to the public. As a result, the rest of the 4-6-0s in this class inherited the title, which was later abbreviated to just 'Jubilees'.