Most of the larger colliery railways in north-east England had locomotives of a larger size and power than normal industrial types, but these were nearly always second-hand and mainly from the North Eastern Railway. This was not the case with the Earl of Durham's Lambton Railway which, out of the fifty or so locos obtained before 1910, had only one which was not new. With the coming of the economic depression in the late 'twenties this policy changed, and one of five locos purchased subsequently from the Great Western Railway is shown above. The 0−6−2 side tank type was not unknown to the Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries as Kitson and Stephenson had supplied some previously. No.53 was built by the Taff Vale Railway at their Cardiff West Yard Works (works number 302 as No.26 of class "O"; the driving wheels were 4ft 6½in, with 3ft 8¾in trailing wheels and 17½in by 26in cylinders. In 1922 it passed into GWR stock as No.448 and was sold in February 1930 through the agency of R.H.Longbotham to L H & J C where it became No.53. A new cab with tapered sides was fitted to allow it to work through the short tunnel at the Sunderland end of the line, and in this form No.53 bore a striking resemblance to the earlier 0−6−2 tanks. With recent pit closures and subsequent decline of the Lambton Railway, the inevitable end came for No.53 in the Philadelphia graveyard in October 1966, leaving the now famous GORDON as the only remaining Taff Vale locomotive.