The LNER Encyclopedia

Hi All
Please can anyone id this loco, is it a Peppercorn A1 or A2, my feeling is a A2 as the 5 looks like the middle number, any one any idea?
http://www.steamlocomotives.photos.gb.n ... 32683.html

Neil

Not a Peppercorn anything - it's a Thompson A2.

Bill

BJamieson wrote:Not a Peppercorn anything - it's a Thompson A2.

Bill

Been informed that the loco is 60533 Happy Knight in its usual condition for a New England loco, confirmation anyone?

Neil

It is a Thompson A2 look at the smoke deflectors and the position of the cylinders.Seems to have a fairly long nameplate too. 60533 was a Peppercorn A2 and also had the multi-valve regulator fittings which would have shown on the print .
P.S. Is that a deltic peeping out of the shed with a yellow front panel which may help date it?

Agreed. Odds on it's 1962, the presence of the Deltic and the Brush type 2, both with yellow panels on their ends, suggests that year. So it has to be one of the seven surviving A2/3s. Take your pick! Long nameplate? Gives several candidates - choose one from 514, 517, 521, 522, 523, 524 - allocations might narrow the search........

Incidentally I understand the cockneys at Top Shed had a fairly ribald nickname for 523....

Chaz

60500 'Edward Thompson' may be one possibility. Withdrawn 6/63, coinciding with the "official" end of steam at King's Cross.

It's definitely not Happy Knight. It's an A2/3.

60500 'Edward Thompson' may be one possibility. Withdrawn 6/63, coinciding with the "official" end of steam at King's Cross.

In a picture dated 5th October 1962 taken by Gavin Morrison, 'Edward Thompson' had a Dia 117 boiler with small circular dome. In another publication it states the loco got a Dia 118 boiler March 1962 to withdrawal.

60500 got a Diagram 118 boiler with banjo dome at its last shopping in March,1962 so it seems that the date may be incorrrect for the Gavin Morrison photo caption. This places its appearance at King's Cross -should it be 60500 - from 3/62- 6/63., possibly, I would think, towards the latter.

As one who has been pushing for a RTR Thompson A2 for some years now (to fill an obvious east coast gap), it was dissapointing to find one editor trashing the idea on the grounds that no two Thompson Pacifics were alike. This same editor had been informing readers he had worked closely with Hornby to get the washout plugs and manhole covers in the correct positions on the various boilered Class A1/A3s! I figured that on this score it shouldn't be too hard for Hornby to tool their Thompsons to take the various configurations, including V front cabs and short fireboxes. We shall have to wait.