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The
London and North Eastern Railways Company Pacific Steam Locomotives
The
London and North Eastern Railways Company Pacific Steam Locomotives
The temptation to
include a section in the web site about those magnificent steam powered
beasts, those living machines, steam locomotives, was too great to
resist. I claim no
expertise in the subject, but some fond memories demand that I attempt
to do them some justice. Due
to a dichotomy of reasons, one being space and time (in the literal
sense rather than the metaphysical), the other being a lack of
sufficient knowledge, I have restricted this to what are likely to be
the most familiar steam locomotives of the LNER ever built, the huge and
fast Pacific classes. These
engines for the most part were Yorkshire engines, many of them built at
the works in Doncaster. I
suspect that anyone of enough years to remember the thrill of watching,
let alone travelling on, one of those trains pulled by a Pacific
locomotive as it thundered and shrieked through the mainline stations of
Yorkshire, could not possibly forget it. The streamlined engines in either garter blue, or green
livery, with smoke and steam gushing behind like the tail of a comet,
were always favourites, not least of small boys gaping in awe and
wonderment, hoping they would stop so that they could run along the
platform and gaze up at the panting (it seemed) engines, as they drew
breath for the next leg of their journey north or south, fostering the
ambition - 'I want to be an engine driver!'
The
history of steam locomotion in the county is as old as any in the
country, but it was not until the time of the great railway companies
such as London Midland Scottish, Great Western, Southern, etc that
competition grew between them for bigger, better, more powerful and
above all, faster engines became necessary.
Above all was the competition between the London Midland &
Scottish Railway, the LMS, and the London & North Eastern Railway,
the LNER. The former owned
and operated the west coast mainline route to Scotland to Glasgow, while
the latter owned and operated the east coast mainline to Edinburgh.
Competition was strong between both companies to provide the fastest and
most luxurious service for their passengers, while constantly attempting
to wrest patronage from the other.
The grouping of many lesser railway companies in a large part
resulted from the necessities of transporting troops during the First
World War. During that
period of conflict, many governmental restrictions had been imposed on
railway companies; they were not lifted until August 1921, when huge
demands were made for compensation.
In order to try to restore some sort of controlled deregulation,
an Act was passed in Parliament effective from 1 January 1923, which cut
down the number of train operating companies to four, of which the
L.N.E.R. was one. It comprised of seven main companies, the North Eastern;
Great Northern; Great Eastern; Great Central; Hull & Barnsley; North
British; and Great North of Scotland railway companies.
Of these, two had outstanding chief engineers, Sir Vincent
Litchfield Raven at North Eastern, and Nigel Gresley (knighted in 1936)
at Great Northern. Raven
was appointed as the first chief engineer for the new L.N.E.R., and was
chiefly responsible for their first Pacific class locomotives.
Gresley took over in 1922, just prior to the official date of
grouping, and oversaw the refinement of the Pacific's. On his sudden
death, in 1941, Edward Thompson took on the mantle of CME at LNER, and
introduced further classes of Pacific's.
Thompson retired in 1946, to be replaced by Arthur Peppercorn,
who remained as CME until the nationalisation of the railways only 18
months later, during which time he too added to the fleet of LNER
Pacific engines.
The
development of the Pacific class locomotives is explained below, but of
those, by far the most famous were the Gresley designed class A4's.
The first of these was 2509 Silver Link, designed to
provide the fastest most luxurious journey between London and Scotland
then available (and seldom surpassed since it has to be said).
To coincide with, and to commemorate the occasion of king George
5th's Silver Jubilee, the service was called, Silver Jubilee, and was
liveried mainly in white, both engines' and coaches, with grey trim.
On 27th September 1935, driver Taylor in 2509 Silver
Link set off from King's Cross with an invited passenger list for
the inaugural demonstration run. Driver
Taylor got Silver Link up to 112 miles per hour on two occasions that
trip, which made it the fastest locomotive, and train service in the
United Kingdom. Later however, in general service, the average speed was no
more than 90 mph. There
were another three locomotives with 'silver' names, whose job to was
to haul the Silver Jubilee trains; Quicksilver; Silver King;
and Silver Fox.
Another
Gresley A4, 4468 Mallard achieved immortality when, on the 3rd
July 1938, driver Duddington together with fireman Bray, on a downhill
section of Stoke Bank, reached 125 miles per hour for 900 feet, and
then, for a fleeting moment, 126 miles per hour!
Mallard had gained the title of the world's fastest
steam engine. It is a
record that has never been beaten, anywhere.
I
The
demise of steam locomotives was a sudden one. There were two main
causes, the introduction of diesel electric locomotion and the swingeing
cuts made to the railways by the infamous Dr. Beeching on behalf of the
Conservative government in the early 1960's. Personal recollection allows visions of rows upon rows of
redundant steam engines at the local branch sidings, a view which then,
seemed to herald a time of new clean trains - who can forget the smell
and smudges of a trip on a steam train? So many were simply sent for
scrap, but there were a few farsighted people who had the courage of
their convictions to buy one or two favoured engines.
Of these, one of the best preserved classes has to be the A4's,
of which no fewer than six have survived.
4464 Bittern; 4468 Mallard; 4498 Sir Nigel
Gresley; 60009 Union of South Africa; 60010 Dominion of
Canada; and 60008 Dwight D. Eisenhower, of which the latter
three are maintained in British Railways Company green, the others in
LNER garter blue. Of
all the other Pacific's, only 4472 Flying Scotsman has
survived. Of the Peppercorn
Pacific's none exist, but at Darlington, as money allows, at the A1
Trust, the 50th Peppercorn is in the process of being built.
Not as a replica, but as the real thing, a genuinely new steam
engine, it is to be called 60163 Tornado.
For those who either wish to experience the sights and sounds,
and smells of live steam, there are three main opportunities within the
county. The Keighley &
Worth Valley Railway, which operates between Keighley and Howorth and
Oxenhope http://www.kwvr.co.uk/
the North Yorkshire Moors Railway between Pickering and Grosmont http://www.nymr.demon.co.uk/
and another, occasional, live steam experience is the Scarborough
Spa Express, which operates seasonally between York and Scarborough, run
by the West Coast Railway Company of Carnforth (Lancashire!!) www.steamtrain.info
One cannot possibly mention steam locomotives and Yorkshire
without including the National Railway Museum at York, which houses the
nation's collection of historic locomotives http://www.nrm.org.uk/
The
author wishes to thank the writers and publishers of the numerous books
on the subject, not least The Illustrated History of Railways in Britain
by Geoffrey Freeman Allen; The Colour of Steam - The LNER Pacific's
by P.N. Townend; and the ubiquitous Observers Book of British Steam
Locomotives by H. C. Casserley. Various
web sites have been used to verify or correct information already held,
and my thanks to them all.
In Conclusion
Some
people might be surprised at the inclusion here of a subject that seems
on the face of it to be 'Toys for Boys', but what has to be
remembered is that these steam locomotives were icons of the 1920's;
30's and 40's.
They ranked alongside such modes of transport as the great ocean
liners or the huge airships of ill-fated fame.
In their prime, they provided a fast and efficient service
between the capitals of England and Scotland, plus many other places
in-between.
Indeed they also provided a service, which in those pre and just
post-war days that was nothing short of luxurious.
The engines that hauled such trains as the Silver Jubilee have
come down to us as little more than legends, and only those very few
preserved specimens remain to provide yet another window to the past.
There are certain sounds (some may call them noises), which are
so evocative of their time.
The throaty roar of a Rolls Royce Merlin engine fitted into a
Spitfire is one, the blast and shriek of a large steam locomotive
hauling an express train is another, also the diddly-dum sound as trains
passed over the rails, and the deep regular heart beat as the pistons
beat their own rhythm.
It is by such tenuous associations that we maintain contact with
the past, a past that for many is still within living memory, but not
diminished for all that.
Personally, I congratulate those far-sighted people, those
devoted few who had the wisdom and money to be able to save from the
'knacker's yard' just some of the LNER Pacific locomotives.
I hope by now we can forgive those engines their smuts of soot,
the great gouts of steam and smoke, all of which are so frowned upon by
today's so called pollution free society.
Even those detractions have an almost aphrodisiac component to
many enthusiasts, and who can, in these days of smokeless zones and
clean air legislation, deny a certain delight in the steam engine's
pure exuberance in the face of authoritarianism.
Not me anyway!!
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