The Great Northern Railway (GNR) No. 1 class Stirling Single is a class of steam locomotive designed for express passenger work. Designed by Patrick Stirling, they are characterised by a single pair of large (8 ft 1 in) driving wheels which led to the nickname "eight-footer".

Stirling built his engines for speed and power, in order to handle some of the continuous gradients on the main York-London GNR line, and to compete against the Midland Railway and L&NWR in the Races to the North. Stirling joined the GNR in 1866 having previously been Locomotive Superintendent of the Glasgow & South Western Railway since 1853.

Six men held this post during the existence of the Great Northern Railway. Until 1868 engines were obtained from outside manufacturers, but after this date were increasingly built at the railway's own Doncaster Works, commonly known as the "Plant". Some engines acquired second-hand or from absorbed companies have been omitted from these lists.

In 1923, the LNER inherited four pacifics, to two classes each consisting of two locomotives, one class from either of two of its constituents, the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and the North Eastern Railway (NER). The Great Northern Pacifics, were of GNR Class A1, designed by Nigel Gresley and numbered 1470/1.

No. 215 was built by Messrs. R. and W. Hawthorn, and was an eight-wheeled engine having outside bearings to all the wheels, including those of the bogie, a large raised firebox with a mid-feather, and no steam dome. The driving wheels had no flanges.

The Great Northern Railway (GNR) ‘8ft Singles’ were a type of steam locomotive designed for express passenger work between London King’s Cross and York by Patrick Stirling. It is characterised by a large single driving wheel allowing it to haul trains of around 150 tons at an average speed of 51mph while reaching speeds of up to 85mph and ...

S&ER No. 1 (GNR 501) was a Fairbairn 0-4-2T with a long history: it had been acquired from the LNWR, but had originated on the Liverpool Crosby & Souithport Railway as a 2-4-0T; it then passed to the L&YR and thence to George Thompson, contractor on the Birkenhead, Lancashire & Cheshire Railway and becoming No. 34 on that railway before passing ...

Only surviving GNR Stirling Single locomotive, as well as the only 4-2-2 type locomotive in the UK. Operated briefly in excursion service on the Great Central Railway in the early 1980s. Became the basis for Emily the Stirling Engine from Thomas & Friends.

The A2/2s are often considered the least successful of Thompson’s Pacific designs, but it has to be borne in mind that he was working with the flawed P2 design. They differed from the other A2 locomotives in not carrying smoke deflectors.

Great Northern Railway Company (GNR) and its most distinguishable feature was and still is the single set of large driving wheels on either side of the locomotive, which measure 8’1 or 2,468 metres across from flange to flange.