The LNER Encyclopedia

I'm afraid this is a request for information rather than the provision of any, and goes back many decades to my trainspotting days. The year would have been 1951 or 52, the location the East Coast Main Line between Durham and Newcastle-upon- Tyne. On summer weekday evenings (only summer, I think, and not every evening) a passenger train could be seen, Newcastle-bound, which attracted trainspotters because it was nearly always headed by a rare visitor to that line. Sometimes it was a member of the D49 'Hunt' or 'Shire' class, sometimes a D20, more disappointingly a B1. We called the train, very unimaginatively, 'the 20 to 7 Hunt' because of the time it went past and its hoped-for, and most likely, motive power. One evening I waited for it, alone in my usual spot, close to where I lived. As it appeared, at a leisurely pace, the vision that unfolded before my disbelieving eyes had a bright red buffer beam and gleaming green paintwork - I remember it as apple green but perhaps memory fails me there - and I read the name 'Royal Sovereign' as the locomotive went past. Next day I reported my find, but for once, none of my friends had been spotting the previous evening, and I was roundly accused of making it up, to the extent that I began to wonder whether I had indeed dreamt it. So far, I have been unable to find any reason why 'Royal Sovereign' should have been in that place at that time. The only significant groups of D49s and D20s in the region were shedded at Scarborough and Starbeck, and I have always therefore supposed the train to be a holiday working from the former or through the latter, whereas 'Royal Sovereign' was based in Cambridge and used for the royal train from Wolferton (for Sandringham) to King's Cross. I've seen one photo of it in its green livery on a service train between Cambridge and London, so it wasn't kept exclusively for royal use, but would be very grateful if anyone can suggest what it was doing up north. I can't link it to any royal visits, and wonder whether, since it was built in Darlington, it might have been serviced or repaired there and was out on test. A 65-year-old mystery waiting to be solved!

Yeadons show it being repaired at Darlington in 1949 and 1950 all other repairs were ar Stratford

Many thanks for the reply. In ascribing my sighting of 'Royal Sovereign' to 1951-52, my memory was obviously at fault, and the locomotive's being repaired at Darlington in 1950 would surely be the cause of my seeing it run through Chester-le-Street. The train of which it was in charge was a stopping service judging by speed and composition, and although I'm not sure of its point of departure would almost certainly have called at Darlington on its way to Newcastle. So it seems most likely that 'Royal Sovereign' was substituted there for the regular loco and given a test run to Newcastle and back. Most grateful for the solution!