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The North British Railway never had a definitive class description scheme for their engines.  They did, however, have two other systems which did classify engines, but neither positively identified individual classes.  The earliest was no more than a listing, in the General Appendix, of many different classes under the headings of First, Second or Third class, loosely based on their quality and the duties they could perform.  The other system was purely a power classification using the letters A to I and S, again listing together sometimes several different classes.

When making a start on computerizing listing of NBR engines in the late 1980s and 1990s, it was clear that something more positive was required to save having to repeat long textual descriptions..  The first idea was to use the LNER classification for those engines which received them, and assign similar letters and numbers to earlier engines.  This was quickly ruled out on the grounds that there could be confusion with existing LNER engines using the same class descriptions.  For example – an NB J1 (Hawthorn 0-6-0 of 1846)  could easily be mistaken for its GN equivalent.. Not only that, but the Whyte system did not cater for some of the wheel arrangements of early engines, and wheel arrangements often changed during the life of early engines. The system which was deemed to be more appropriate is the one which follows, where a number is allocated to each class, as was the case with BR and other railways, for their diesel locomotives and multiple units and is still used to this day. In our case this has been extended to differentiate between members of a class where there were significant differences when built.  For example differing wheelbases or un-superheated and superheated versions.  This is indicated by a suffix consisting of /1, /2 etc.  Further differences occurred when engines were re-built, these are shown by suffixes /A, /B etc.    An example of the listing is as follows and you are welcome to download a copy for your own use by clicking the link below.  The file is in PDF form and consists of 24 pages.
 

  Class
Type NB LNE Wheels Intro Built By Date  Description
51 D  J83    0-6-0T  Holmes       Neilson/Sharp     1900-1   

In the preparation of the list a large number of sources have been consulted, but for many of the very earliest engines the information still available is very scant and, in some cases, open to interpretation.  Although much analysis has been done the compiler would welcome any comments or suggestions to enable the listing to be updated, but, please indicate your source.