Model railway company Rapido Trains UK has announced an addition to its fleet of GNR locos – an OO gauge model of Atlantic tank engine LNER C12 4-4-2T.

Great Northern Railway’s locomotive designer, Henry Ivatt, designed the engine for local passenger services in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

He decided on a wheel arrangement that had already worked well on other GNR trains, the Atlantic 4-4-2.

The first ten locos came out of Doncaster works in 1898, and GNR labelled them the C2 Class tank engine. GNR continued building the class in batches of ten; the 60th example was completed in 1907.

The final fifty locomotives in the class had condensing apparatus installed to make them suitable for working through the Metropolitan Widened Lines tunnels in London.

When the N1 Class locomotives were introduced from 1906, the C2s lost some of the heavier work on the widened lines and suburban services.

However, they stayed in service and hauled many of the lighter trains. However, when the N2 class arrived in 1920. The C2s stopped working underground.

The C2 locos still had their uses, and were powerful for their small size, so were reallocated in 1922, with the GNR dispersing them to locations including Leeds, Peterborough, Grantham and Bradford.

After the Grouping Act in 1923, the LNER reclassified the C2 tank engines as the C12 and deployed them further afield than the bounds of the old GNR network.

Ten C12s were withdrawn during 1937-8, and the rest were redeployed around the LNER network.

When the railway system was nationalised, British Rail inherited 49 Class 12s.

Rapido Trains’ rendition of the LNER C12 4-4-2T will be available in a variety of liveries. These will include several variants used before grouping, some from the grouping era, and others from the locos’ British Rail days.

The models will vary in several details, including chimneys, domes, safety valves, round and flared or square bunkers, round or square tank corners, condensing pipes, and three different designs of coal rails.

Models representing pregrouping variants that were fitted with a condensing apparatus will include brass destination plates in the detailing bag, which will fit neatly into destination board brackets.

The models will have a smooth-running mechanism, diecast running board, factory-installed speaker, an ESU E24 DCC decoder socket, pre-fitted MoPower stay-alive, and firebox flicker with a dynamic fire draw effect.

The models will be fitted with NEM 363 coupler pockets on the front and NEM 362 on the rear, so that the leading bogie’s detail is not compromised.

Enthusiasts can pre-order their models directly from Rapido Trains’ website from today, or from any of the company’s Official Retailers.