The Midland Railway's Locomotive Superintendent, Samuel Waite Johnson designed a new single-framed 0-6-0 tender locomotive. Though the Class M was designed and primarily used as a freight locomotive, they were equipped to work vacuum-braked trains, so it was not uncommon for them to haul passenger services. A total of 345 examples were built for the Midland Railway, mainly by outside contractors, bar 10, between 1892 and 1903.
Five were built for the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway and several locos were also ordered on behalf of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Committee.
In 1923, the LMS inherited all of the surviving Midland locos in this condition, with the LNER taking charge of the remaining locos from the M&GNJR in 1936. The S&DJR engines had all been rebuilt as Class 3F by the time they became LMS stock in 1930. 
The Rapido Trains UK OO Gauge rendition of the Midland Class M 0-6-0 represents the locos fitted with ‘B’ boilers and will be available in a variety of liveries. These include Midland, S&DJR, LMS, M&GNJR and LNER condition. The models will be fitted with a MoPower stay-alive capacitor, plunger pickups fitted to the loco and wheel-bearing pickups on the tender.
Tooling differences throughout the range include different handrails, toolboxes, chimneys, smokebox doors, either Midland or S&DJR Style tenders and smooth or riveted smokeboxes.
Other features include a factory-installed speaker, front and rear NEM 362 coupler pockets, sprung buffers, a 21-pin DCC decoder socket, and firebox flicker with a dynamic fire draw effect on DCC-fitted models.
The 16 versions being produced in both DCC Ready and DCC Sound Fitted versions are shown below:
To view the whole range, due during 2027 click the image above.
Subject to alteration.
