DNZ QUICK BITTERN RETURN?

21st March Bittern in steam outside the wheel drop shed at Southall. Loco in Blue LNER on tender but only glimpsed that and I could not be sure if the steel letters have been retained. My best guess is that they have not. Definitely no valances though and it looked as if the winter maintenance is complete.

 

Spotted this Youtube video of 4464 taken yesterday at Southall on the Steam Railway facebook page - valances on, yellow numbers and lettering - looks good to me!

Preparing LNER Class A4 4464 Bittern for Steam - YouTube

 

This gives the definitive answer and stops the speculation!

 

How good is that?!!

In this ticket we have seen Bittern in BR green with late crest, as a Coronation A4 and now as a standard 1937 production A4.
Thank you to the owner & custodians for giving us such great variety in styles & appearances.

At the risk of being greedy, Apple Green or Silver would look nice.

 

I'm just a little surprised to see the paintwork looks rough in places on the boiler and missing from the maintenance doors on the valancing, I would have thought the team would want her looking shiny and new in her new livery. Still looks stunning and I will be like many other photographers I'm sure following her up the valley several times over the next three days

Cheers

Duncan

 

Excellent!

I must say the painted letters are my preference for LNER Blue A4s

Steven

 

She's going to look the bees knees, 2857 is looking stunning after vicious attack from the SVR cleaners and I'm sure that 4464 will receive the same!

 

Well hopefully Mr Jones will take the opportunity to respond on here, rather than merely using it as a means of promoting his publication?

 

Left Worcester about 5 down looking pleasingly like Mallard

 

Does Bittern have a different whistle, I know she was supposed to get one to match her being in that guise, but wasnt sure whether it actually got fitted? It sounds a bit lower from watching videos of her at the SVR!

 

Others on here can direct you to exhaustive discussion on LNER and BR chime whistles. The basic gist is the whistle is the same but the note is inclined to vary due to various reasons.

When she was running as Dominion of New Zealand it was planned that a NZR whistle would be fitted as the original 4492 had and to that end a NZ preservation group sent one over. Sadly, it was never fitted.