Since the Great Northern's L1, it had become the fashion in Britain to procure very heavy tank locomotives without a leading axle for jobs requiring high tractive effort or rapid acceleration. The poorer running smoothness at higher speeds and the shorter range compared to a tender locomotive could be ignored here. While the L1 was built for the rapid acceleration of commuter trains, the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway's Class 32 was intended to be used for heavy shunting or hauling freight trains. The area of application was primarily in the port of Liverpool, which had short, steep gradients. George Hughes, chief engineer of the L&YR, based the development to a certain extent on the class 30 D tender locomotive of his predecessor Aspinall.

The diameter of the boiler was increased by a full foot while still sticking to the saturated steam principle. Considerations had come to the conclusion that the superheaters of the time did not work with full efficiency in shunting operations and that the additional complexity would therefore not be expedient. The wheelbase of the coupled axles was increased, which required the four middle coupled wheels to be designed without flanges. The cylinders were very large for a locomotive without a compound engine and powered the second axle. They provided a pulling force of about 34,000 pounds. 

The last built engine, No. 1505

Five examples were ordered, all delivered in March and April 1908. Their use was initially planned on the shunting yards in Aintree with humps, but this was ultimately not possible. The reason for this was that some chassis parts damaged the conductor rails attached there. Ultimately they were stationed at Accrington and Agecroft and used for heavy shunting and pushing work. After the grouping of 1923, the L&YR belonged to the LMS and there there was no great need for small classes with a few vehicles. Therefore, they were retired between 1925 and 1929 when the maintenance deadlines for the boilers expired.