60007 (4498) Sir Nigel Gresley Overhaul

I’d still prefer to see it as a substitute for No 9 just for a change but just back in service will do.

 

I do like the BR blue, but garter blue is my favourite and it would be wonderful to see her restored to pre-war condition (or as near as possible) with valances at some point. As ever, though, ultimately I just grateful that she will be running at all. We are certainly going from feast to famine where A4s are concerned!

 

What was the colour under the LNER, if not garter blue?

 

For No.4498 / No.7, black.

 

As 4498 it was blue with the side valances, post war when it was repainted blue it became No 7. The next change was to BR blue but it didn’t receive its double Kylchap chimney until well into BR green days

 

I am sure that at least one A4 did run in the post-war blue with chrome-plated numbers and letters and no valances, yet still carrying pre-1946 numbers. I have a feeling Dwight D. Eisenhower was turned out in this way for its renaming in 1945? Also, during WWII some of the 'Coronation' A4s may have lost their valances before they lost their chrome numbers or were repainted black. Don't quote me on it though!

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May be they did but the question was about SNG. Did any of the four original Kylchap engines survive in blue?

 

Without checking, but I believe the Kylchap fitted A4s were blue at the time of the 1948 interchange trials.

 

I’m sure they were, the ER authorities wouldn’t let them visit any ‘foreign minister railway in Tatty wartime black

 

4468 Mallard to black in June '42, Garter Blue restored March '48 and B.R. blue Sept. '49.
4901 Capercaillie/Charles H Newton/ Sir Charles Newton to black Aug. '42, Garter Aug. '46, B.R. blue Nov. '49.
4902 Seagull to black May '42, Garter Dec. '47, B. R. blue Nov. '50
4903 Peregrine/Lord Faringdon to black Sept. '42, Garter Dec. '47, B.R. blue Dec. '50.

And no, I wasn't around at the time, so credit to the usual sources. The A4s are rather well documented which is helpful.

The LNER is not particularly well represented in preservation and in terms of working locomotive examples that representation is shrinking. The construction of new examples of vanished classes does help to fill out the gaps, so to speak, and these will in time have their own story to tell but this is not quite the same as it would be for an engine built by the actual company or one of its constituents.

Quite where all this might go, who can say? There are factors that we can exert some control over and others that we cannot. In the absence of a fully functioning crystal ball we continue on our way hopefully doing the best that we can, though some of the posts on the forum indicate that this is not always the case but this is part of the unfortunate nature of the broader human condition.

 

Thanks for that, I couldn’t be bothered to look it up! One thought, other railways, notably the GW, named locos after birds but was the LNER the only one that named one after a species that doesn’t exist?

 

I'd love to see 60007 outshopped in wartime black for running in before going back to her BR blue.

Not getting into Livery Froth but I just find it fascinating to see the different variations they carried in service.

Chris

 

Page 10 of today's Daily Telegraph. I was slightly concerned that my dad was taking an angle grinder to the smokebox - he's meant to be putting back together, not cutting it up! But it was all staged for the camera.

 

Please forgive my ornithological ignorance, but which is the non-existent namesake?

 

Seagull?

 

Maybe referring to Wild Swan. Several species of swan but none carry the name Wild Swan. IMO that's just a generic name for any species of the genus.

 

That makes two then. The other one has already been mentioned, there is no species called seagull.

 

What about Peregrine and Falcon? Peregrine Falcon is one of about 40 species of falcon, but there aren't any species called just peregrine or just falcon.

 

Falcon is generic as you say, but I think these days at least “peregrine” on its own is pretty much standard usage, rather than the formal “peregrine falcon”. All those flipping cathedrals with peregrine webcams can’t all be wrong!

Tom

 

The other anomaly is 60018 Sparrow Hawk - pedantic I know but the bird name is one word - (Eurasian) Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus). Like Falcons, there are many species of sparrow hawks or Accipiters in the world so the name is generic.