The LNER Encyclopedia

found this on Sky catch up and watched it for the first time in many years

Any idea who the talking heads are. i know Rev Awdry but all the others, including that couple who hogged a lot of time about nothing. i havent a clue

Inspectors,drivers etc

Can you post the link please?
Is it the BBC 1st May 40th Anniversary KGX-Edinburgh run?

When I went as a cleaner at Kings Cross loco, yes new starters were still called 'cleaners' in the loco in 1974 the driver Instructor that we had I forget his name but he was a rounded sort of bloke who wore glasses and had dark hair and who would have been in his 40s at that time claimed that there is a shot on the footplate of 4472 when the driver gets the 'right away' from the guard at Kings Cross and the viewer sees a hand along with a arm open the locos regulator well he said that was his hand and arm!. Apparently it was either filmed in Kings Cross Goods yard or around the back of the milk dock one or the other?.

Also I remember seeing 4472 during 1968 & 1969 on about 4 or 5 main line runs through Welwyn Garden City and it was a impressive sight indeed and none of your slow road running in those days like today but straight along the Down fast line!!.

The fireman on the filmed 1968 run with 4472 was by the time that I was at Kings Cross as a secondman during 1974-75 was by that time a driver in no.5 link on ECS and Inner suburban passenger diagrams on Brush type 2s but I didn't know his name but I remember someone telling me that he had been the fireman on that 1968 run.

I am on the Welwyn North footbridge for the 1968 run, We got there early to bag our spot for a last authentic taste of Yorkshire hards exhaust.

Now concerning proper fast running, April 14th Tornado is KX-York return authorised for 90 mph. I have to be in Bedford most of the day but hope to be lineside for the return run. Thinking about Knebworth platform or nearby, a favoured haunt in the days of steam operation, as the engine was opened out some to maintain speed on the little rise from Langley.

The programme has been on BBC iPlayer for quite some time now.

<pedant>Shouldn't it be 4472 1968 run?</pedant>

Sawdust.

From the notes in various articles I have collected over the years it seems the two drivers involved on the 1st May non-stop were John Hill (from Kings Cross) and a Driver Heron (from Gateshead)..sorry no first name
Regret to say I dont know the names of the firemen on this trip but apparently there were 3 (two from KGX & one from GHD)
A letter by David Rollins (also a KGX driver at that time) giving some further detail of the planning and operation of the run appears in Steam World mag for Feb 2014 (page22) It seems he too was on the footplate for some parts of the journey
Two other names feature, these being the Inspectors involved
Les Richards for north of York and George Harland for south thereof; this latter gentleman appears to have featured on a few steam specials towards the end. What do we know of him? Was he extra keen to be rostered on such runs or was it "just his job"?
Eric

Hatfield Shed wrote: ↑Fri Mar 30, 2018 11:38 am I am on the Welwyn North footbridge for the 1968 run, We got there early to bag our spot for a last authentic taste of Yorkshire hards exhaust

That coal seam was underneath the Barnsley area and was top grade steam coal.

I remember a number of runs that 4472 made around that 1968-1969 time period and I believe I may have seen maybe three runs that she made passing through Welwyn Garden City on the Down fast line and at least one run on the Up fast line through Welwyn Garden City one early Sunday afternoon.

Finally I had a school trip behind 4472 (Kings Cross to York) in maybe August 1969 where she made a special stop at Welwyn Garden City going Down road. On the return trip from York 4472 was taken off at Doncaster this may have been planned by the operating department and a English Electric type 4 (later class 40) was hooked on the front and promptly 'failed' heading back home just before Newark flat crossing!!.