In 1901, Wilson Worsdell introduced a new class of 0-8-0 locomotives for the North Eastern Railway. It was designated class T and used for heavy goods and mineral traffic. A total of 90 were built in the same year. The actual class T was made up of 40 with piston valves, while 50 with slide valves were designated T1.
The ones with slide valves were found out to be more freely running on downhill sections. They operated trains of 1,300 tons at an average speed of 21 mph or 34 km/h. When the NER became part of the LNER, they were designated class Q5. Between 1932 and 1934, 14 got a bigger boiler and became subclass Q5/2, while the rest was renamed to Q5/1.