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Full steam ahead for classic train
Julie Hemmings AFTER he designed some of the icons of the steam age, Sir Nigel Gresley was rewarded with a locomotive named in his honour.
So unsurprisingly rail enthusiasts turned out in force to see the engine's return to the tracks after a four-year,
750,000 overhaul.
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway had to timetable extra trips after tickets for initial trains drawn by Sir Nigel Gresley – or A4 Pacific, British Railways number 60007 – swiftly sold out.
The locomotive, which has travelled more than 100,000 miles, was built in Doncaster in 1937 by the London and North Eastern Railway.
As the 100th of its class, the company honoured the engine's designer, Sir Nigel Gresley, by giving the locomotive his name.
Despite holding the post-war steam speed record at 112mph, the engine had to be saved from the scrap heap in 1966 by a small group of determined men who set up the A4 Preservation Society, now the Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Preservation Trust Limited.
The trust, a registered charity, is dedicated to keeping the locomotive running.
Sir Nigel Gresley's grandson, Tim Godfrey, was aboard for the locomotive's first outing on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on Saturday and was joined by local dignitaries and charity supporters.
The engine ran two round trips between Pickering and Grosmont pulling a full set of LNER coaches, its arrival heralded by fanfares from Richmond Town Pipe Band.
Sir Nigel's four-year overhaul took place at Grosmont Motive Power depot on the 18-mile heritage line, which was closed in the Beeching cuts but re-opened in 1974 as a living museum.
The locomotive was withdrawn from service at the end of October 2001 and the overhaul began in January 2002.
Since then a team of dedicated volunteers has refurbished the locomotive to bring it back to its original splendour.
The work, including the re-casting of many major parts, is thought to have cost 750,000, most of which was raised by steam enthusiasts.
The Heritage Lottery Fund provided a grant of about 250,000 but the bulk of the cost was met by small-scale ongoing fund-raising such as raffles and monthly subscriptions.
Sir Nigel can be seen again on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on Saturday, running in conjunction with the trust's annual meeting.
SIR NIGEL GRESLEY
Sir Nigel was born in Edinburgh in 1876 and educated at Marlborough College before completing an apprenticeship at the Crewe locomotive works of the London and North Western Railway.
In 1898 he moved to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway to gain experience
in the drawing office at the start of a long career that
saw him being elected president of the Institution
of Locomotive Engineers and the Institution of Civil Engineers.
He designed his first articulated carriages in 1911 and rose to become locomotive superintendent of the Great Northern Railway, joining the newly-formed London and North Eastern Railway in 1922. The first Gresley Pacific came into service that year.
Sir Nigel, who received his knighthood for services to the railways, had the 100th 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive named after him in 1937.
The engineer also designed the Flying Scotsman, Green Arrow and Mallard, which all are now stars of the collection of the National Railway Museum in York.
Mallard set a world speed record for steam locomotives of 126mph on the East Coast Main Line south of Grantham on July 3, 1938.
In 1941, three years after Mallard's record, and two months before he had been due to retire, Sir Nigel died of a heart attack, at the age of 64.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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