Favourite LNER Locomotive

[M Gair]

I've always liked the A4's, especially the original Silver Loco's , Silver Link, King, Fox and Quicksilver, when hauling the Silver Jubilee. All those mentioned are great A3, K3, V2, P2, G5 etc, but you can't go past a Director D10 5433 'Walter Burgh Gair' in LNER lined black. Off course I am biased.

Now I only wish Hornby or Bachmann would produce one.

Mark Gair

[John B]

the A3 was and always will be the best and greatest for me. In general, well, just look at one ! Mechanical Grace and Elegance personified !

I am very much with Hyperion here, I have always loved the A3's. For me the A3 is the pinnacle of that very British style of beautifully proportioned, uncluttered elegant engine design. They worked as well as they looked and when polished up and seen at speed, well there was nothing quite like them.

The A4's were superb of course but they lacked that penchant for quintessential English understatement, the Bugatti styling made them something quite other!

I would like to see another A3 built to increase the availability of the A3's for mainline work, I would call her "Altisidora"

[giner]

A3 lover here, too. I just had to google your Altisidora suggestion (you knew someone would ) and came up with this: http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/Mandane.html

so i see where you're coming from with Altisidora. A nice sounding name to be sure, and there's more than a few more on that site.

[Greedy Boards]

Dear All

For understated effectiveness and ability to do the job through sixty-odd years from North Estaern to the last days of BR steam, I would have to suggest the J26/J27 Worsdell 0-6-0 locomotives, with the Q6 0-8-0 breathing heavily on their shoulders.

The NER applied North American locomotive principles to its 0-6-0 design, and the P2 (J26) was born in 1904. Two years later this design was all but repeated, with only slight internal modifications, and the P3 (J27) came into being. The basic design has similarities with the Gresley J39 that was delivered some twenty years later in 1926, but the J26 & J27 continued to perform their tasks up to and beyond the last of the J39 Class.

The NER large-boilered range was extended in 1913 by the arrival of Raven's T2 (Q6), which could haul two and a half times the load of a J27, and Raven's S3 (B16) 4-6-0 duly arrived in 1919, and soon established itself as a fast mixed traffic locomotive thereafter on both NE metals, but also on the ECML and GCR lines.

Of the three, I would elect for the former J26/J27, and this would work well on any branchline model layout from 1904 - 1967.

Regards

[Vic Haloms olderbruv]

Silver King.
I think, '62 or '63.

Bank Top, platform 4, in she came on a parcels.

I seem to remember she sounded ok but was absolutely grafted! Even filthier than a W.D., which was hard to beat for dirt.
We cabbed her, then watched it head north. We got the next train, (as we were going for a look to see what came into Newcastle from Edinburgh, I never, ever, saw Willie Whitelaw)

I did

[Sir Nigel Gresley]

Silver King.
I think, '62 or '63.

Bank Top, platform 4, in she came on a parcels.

I seem to remember she sounded ok but was absolutely grafted! Even filthier than a W.D., which was hard to beat for dirt.
We cabbed her, then watched it head north. We got the next train, (as we were going for a look to see what came into Newcastle from Edinburgh, I never, ever, saw Willie Whitelaw)

I did

So did I, in Leeds City Station, of all places, on a RCTS Special over the S & C, about 1965 - I have a grotty b & w photo, but I'm not at home, so can't post it. It was my last of the class, having copped all the others on elicit bunks round the Plant on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday, having travelled there on the 10.10 from Leeds Central, usually hauled by KOYLI (the V2 version) or an ex-works 64B pacific (Those that immediately spring to mind being Humorist and Bachelor's Button).

Before moving to Leeds, having attended Priory Road Junior School in Hull, which backed onto the Hull - Bridlington line, my favourite LNER Locos are probably the D49s, which handled most of the traffic - I just loved the nameplates on the Hunts - "The York and Ainsty" probably being my favourite. Incidentally, full marks to the producers of "Heartbeat"; when the series first started I spotted "The Aidensfield" over the fireplace in the Aidensfield Arms, and on my next visit to Goathland I had to pop into the pub to check if "The Goathland" was over the fireplace, and as many of you will know, it is. Unfortunately "The Aidensfield" doesn't have a fox, and the "The" is in the wrong place, but a good effort nonetheless.

The last D49s I saw were a spotless "The Fitzwilliam" on a Hull - Scarborough passenger, at Bridlington in the Summer of 1960, and shortly thereafter a filthy "The Badsworth" on a goods at the north end of York station, coming out of the yard, and crossing the ECML onto the Scarborough line (you can't do that now!), presumably for Hull.

Back to Priory Road School - the "One o'clock Goods" to the Ideal Boilers factory always had 77001, with 77010 substituting during washouts/works visits.

[geoffshumba]

I saw WW but I can't remember where - it must have been on the East coast however.

[52A]

Willie Whitewash departs Pelaw on the Leamside line with an RCTS special 19th September 1965.

[geoffshumba]

Thanks for the picture! I started spotting in 1962 and more or less stopped in 1968 - still interested but not collecting numbers. The first couple of years were more or less limited to Northumberland with the odd rare trip to Newcastle.

[HonestTom]

I'm not sure I could pick any one favourite... I like the GER tram engines (the Y6s and J70s), the J69s have always appealed and, at the other end of the scale, I've always been impressed by the A3s.

One that particularly stands out for me is the L2. Not so much in its LNER days, but when these engines were working on the Metropolitan they just looked so marvellously incongruous. When you think "London Transport", you think of little Tube trains or maybe the red GWR pannier tanks. So when you see a photo of a huge 2-6-4 at the head of a heavy goods train roaring through the Buckinghamshire countryside, "London Transport" emblazoned proudly across the tanks, it's a bit of a weird one to take in.

EDIT - And I forgot the J94s, which are definitely in my top ten locomotives ever. Rugged, powerful and purposeful. Really Useful Engines.

[giner]

Yes, indeed. The L2 was a handsome locomotive, reminiscent of some of the larger Southern tanks.

Re. 60004, along with messrs. 60001, 60002, 60004 and 60005, was a rarity down south. Never saw any of them through Stevenage. At the time, us lads reckoned they must have been on night runs.

[50C]

I'm suprised you never saw 60004 ,as being an Haymarket A4, it was a regular performer on the non-stop Elizabethan in the 1950's

[stembok]

A4 60004 was something of a rare bird in London, particularly in the middle and later 1950s. She did make a few odd appearances on The Elizabethan in 1953/56 and 1958, but was not one of the Haymarket regulars on this, train such as 60027 .Her reliability record does not seem to have been good, as in 1953/56 and 58 she suffered failures . No. '4' had a a reputation as a bit of an unlucky engine in this respect, though she was in the Haymarket 'top link' and reputedly a good performer on the road, being at one time the regular engine of Drivers Jimmy Swan and Bill Nairn. I believe Tommy Knox has a piece on her on his web site.
Most of Gateshead's lodging turns to London were night jobs on sleepers, though post 1956 the A4s could be seen on the up evening Talisman arrive C22.40 returning on the dn 'Glasgow' 10,10 later 11.00 am from King's Cross. I remember seeing 60002 & 60005 quite a few times in the summer of 1957 on this job. If one of 52A's A4s had just been through works they would often settle down for a lengthy spell on this working.

[manna]

G'Day All
Got to be a V2,look's power and sound, lets build a new one?? or a LNER steam railcar, never saw one of those, would be good on a preserved line. But don't forget my name! Manna.

[Belvoir]

I have a very soft spot for the ex-GER S69 4-6-0 - B12 in LNER and later days - and I shall now provoke howls of anger from many by my preference for the B12/3 re-builds as I think they look better proportioned with the larger boiler, and much neater without the decorative valances !!!

Great engines that outlived their B17 replacements.