No.63601, GCR 8K Class

No.63601, GCR 8K Class, reached its one hundredth birthday in January, 2012. As No.102 the locomotive rolled out of the Gorton works of the Great Central Railway in January, 1912 and was one of the first of the class designed to haul the heavy freight trains to and from the enormous new port of Immingham opened by the GCR in July,1912.



                                

The GCR 2-8-0 class has a complex history as in the First World War the design was selected by the Railway Operating Division for large scale production. These and engines commandeered from the GCR became known as RODs.