A2 60532 Blue Peter

Excellent to see the A2 back, and in Blue, too! Fantastic.

61B beckons. High time to make a trip to some very familiar metals.

 

Wasn't it that the red band indicated Timken, & plain yellow was SKF (or vice versa)?

 

When EWS took over the maintenance of Virgins Class 47’s in the late 1990’s at Toton axle box covers went a distinct shade of red, although the 37’s at Crewe still had yellow ones.

 

Yes, that rings a bell now that you mention it.

 

Sure I've seen it in LNER apple green so is prototypical there

 

Before the agreement with NELPG Mr Drury had it in Apple Green as LNER ‘532’ so it has worn it but only after it was privately owned

 

I know what colour I would like, I'm sure Mr Porterbrook would be happy to help.

 

Only if you added a lot of blue to it, to have a shade that matched Ultramarine blue,

 

I'm not sure whether this is the right thread for my questions but here goes. Why did Peppercorn introduce two classes of Pacifics that were mostly identical apart from slightly different driving wheels? How much significance would that difference have made in operation? In practice, were they used on different duties?

 

Just following on from Thompson who introduced the A1 and A2 variants. Arguably the A2 was a follow on from the V2.

 

The A2s were better in trials than the A1 at operating heavy trains in 1949.

ref Locomotives of the LNER part 2A RCTS

The A2 was envisaged as a long term successor to the V2. The small wheels were ideal for the Edinburgh-Aberdeen section on express and fast freight work. A genuine mixed traffic engine.

The lineage of engines with 6ft 2in wheels and high power being required in the North goes back to the P2s.

The unmodified single chimney versions gave great trouble in the steaming department for most of their careers.

 

The majority of the Peppercorn A2s were based in Scotland. A 1955 allocation list shows 11 of them (out of 15 total) at Edinburgh, Dundee & Aberdeen depots.

 

There was a school of thought that the smaller wheels were better for the steeper gradients of the Waverley Route and the Aberdeen Road. In practice I don’t think it made a lot of difference.

 

I don’t think Apple green was ever going to happen, it would look too much like Tornado, the accurate choice would have been BR Green. the Blue livery was only used on top flight express engines, hence the MNs were blue but the Southern light Pacifics were green.
Whoever was in charge did make some mistakes though, some Jubilees received lined black livery, the Schools Class were not considered to be express engines at all and were painted lined black until 1956. Four of them remained black until withdrawn.

 

You are complaining about a correctly liveried Mk1 but have no problem with a BR Mk2 brake in spiritus Pullman livery? There is a reason for it of course, it’s to match the real Pullmans that it spend most of its time coupled to.

 

it’s never cause da problem before. Joe Public need to be told it’s the name of a racehorse

 

Amazing. It's been green for 86 years without a problem, so why now?

 

I agree but I think it’s 76 years! It makes me feel old when I look at a loco like this and reflect on my own works plate predating it.

 

So what are you going to do? paint it chestnut?