The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 8F is a class of steam locomotives designed for hauling heavy freight. 852 were built between 1935 and 1946 (not all to LMS order), as a freight version of William Stanier's successful Black Five, and the class saw extensive service overseas during and after the Second World War. Background LMS freight traction suffered from the adoption of the Midland Railway's small engine policy which had left it with trains double-headed by underpowered 0-6-0s supplemented by disappointing Garratts and Fowler 7F 0-8-0s. The 8F design incorporated the two-cylinder arrangement of the Black Fives. They were initially classified 7F, but this was later changed to the more familiar 8F. On the outbreak of the World War II, the design was chosen to become the country's standard freight design, reprising the role the GCR Class 8K had in the First World War. The War Department had 208 8Fs built by Beyer Peacock and North British Locomotive Company and requisitioned 51 more. Stanier 8F production for the WD continued until 1943 when the cheaper WD Austerity 2-8-0 was introduced. Production for British domestic use continued until 1946. Construction LMS nos. 8012–6/8–25/8/30–2/4/8–49/51/2/8/9/61/6/8/9/71/2/7–80/5–8/91/3/4 were requisitioned by the War Department in 1941 and renumbered 572–622 (not in order). These 51 locomotives were intended for service in Persia, but twelve never got there: four (former nos. 8066/8/71/87) were lost in the Irish Sea whilst being shipped in 1941 and eight more were damaged in transit, repaired and returned to LMS stock in 1943 (on loan from 1942), resuming their former LMS numbers 8024/69/78–80/5/8/93. After the war, ten were bought from the WD by British Railways in 1949, and were given BR numbers 48012/6/8/20/39/45/6/61/77/94, being their original numbers increased by 40000. One final locomotive, originally LMS 8025, was bought by BR in 1957 and renumbered 48775. Thus 299 former LMS locomotives were eventually in BR stock. Not all were required immediately by the War Department, and so beginning in August 1940, 53 were loaned to the LMS and given temporary LMS numbers as shown. 25 of these were subsequently transferred to the GWR, still on loan from the WD, but retained their LMS numbers. No. 407, then on loan to the GWR and running as LMS 8293, was damaged in an accident at Dolphin Junction, Slough; after repair it was bought by the LMS in 1943, retaining number 8293. The