This famous class of locomotives was developed from John Ramsbottom's 2-4-0 'Newton' class which dated back to 1866. Mr. F.W.Webb took over as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London & North Western Railway in 1871 and from 1874 he built a further 20 locomotives in the same style as the Newton class but with modifications including higher boiler pressure. The first member of this new class was No. 2175 'Precedent'. From 1877 until 1882 a further 76 locos were added giving a class total of 166. However from 1887 to 1902 all 166 members of the Precedent class were renewed or rebuilt at Crewe Works as virtually brand new locomotives.

These remarkable machines were hard workers and earned the name 'Jumbos' - the English pet name for an elephant. The Jumbos were powerful, surefooted and reliable just like an elephant. But unlike the elephant the L&NWR Jumbos were very fast indeed! For this reasons the Jumbos were selected for the famous railway rivalry that broke out for the second time in 1895. The so-called 'Race to the North' was competed between the East Coast and West Coast groups of railway companies between London and Aberdeen - a distance of more than 520 miles. The L&NWR was a key player in the West Coast consortium and their Precedent class locomotives were regular performers on the route from London to Crewe and Crewe to Carlisle.

On the night of 22/23 August 1895, locomotive No. 790 'Hardwicke' was chosen for the all-important leg of the journey between Crewe and Carlisle. An average speed of 67.2mph for the 141 miles was achieved over this most difficult terrain which includes the famous climb to Shap summit. By the standards of the day this was a monumental achievement. The competitor on the East Coast Route was the famous Great Northern Railway Stirling 8 foot Single and today 'Hardwicke' and GNR No.1 stand together in the National Railway Museum at York. Another famous Jumbo was No.955 'Charles Dickens'.

This locomotive ran nearly every day for 20 years from London to Manchester and back and covered 2 million miles - a record that was never broken. After the grouping of the L&NWR into the LMS in 1923 the Jumbos were re-painted in LMS livery. Most Jumbos were painted black but four members of the class were painted in the fully lined red livery and looked particularly beautiful. Aster have modelled No. 5036 'Novelty' in the LMS red livery and No. 5001 'Snowdon' in the LMS black livery. Incidentally Snowdon was the last member of the Precedent class to be withdrawn in 1934.