Stanier Class Five

Drivers, firemen and trainspotters loved the Black Fives. Their popularity came from their ability to go almost anywhere, do almost anything and look good while doing it.

Crews who turned up to work on the railway and found a Black Five waiting for them were usually in for a good day. They could keep pace with some of the fastest express trains and were light enough and small enough to go where the biggest locomotives couldn’t. Black Five were so versatile that over 840 of them were built in a period of around 17 years.

People nicknamed the engines Black Fives by combining their colour with part of their official name, the Stanier Class Five.