When they could finally afford a new locomotive, what J.M. Dunn described as “that hopeful band, ‘the proprietors of, and other people interested in, the East and West Junction Railway’ ” turned to Beyer, Peacock of Manchester and ordered locomotives from their standard range.
The first such locomotive, destined to be Number 2 on the EWJR and the SMJR, was a design originally produced for a Dutch Railway, being an outside-framed 0-6-0 tender loco with 4’6″ driving wheels and cylinders of 17″ bore x 24″ stroke and Allen straight link motion.
It was delivered with a round topped boiler, and square-with-round-corners windows. It was not fitted with continuous brakes and was obviously intended for hauling freight trains. According to Riley and Simpson, it was in brown, lined yellow-black-yellow in 1903, and was probably delivered in this colour scheme.
Number 2 prior to rebuilding, probably at Stratford
In 1904 it was rebuilt, with a new cab and boiler and also vacuum brakes. The boiler was odd, being not quite a Belpaire: the vacuum brakes were fitted not to enable it to work passenger trains (the EWJR was a Westinghouse air-braked line) but to provide extra coverage for through freight trains from the Midland – the banana specials were vacuum braked. In this condition the loco survived to be absorbed into LMS stock as number 2300 and it lasted until 1926. It appears to have retained the black livery, lined green-yellow-green.
Number 2 as rebuilt, in early LMS days at Stratford
The Erratic and Wandering Journey 