These Pacifics were introduced for the LNER in 1927, as a development of the GNR Class A1. There were 79 members of the class and all had been withdrawn by 1966. Flying Scotsman is the sole survivor, preserved since 1963.
Such an elegant and well-proportioned design, a lot of
discussion has been given as to whether they are more pleasing aesthetically
with or without German-style smoke deflectors. I prefer them with, partly
because they were unique in this country and very different from what we were
used to seeing on the LM Region, so it made them very distinctive.
I could not have had a more dramatic introduction to the
class. Our train from Liverpool - probably on a school railway society trip to
York, in 1961, pulled onto the four-track ECML at Church Fenton at the same
time as No. 60036 Colombo, light engine, and also travelling north. We ran parallel
to her and then gradually overtook her. I read somewhere that she was a regular
stand-by engine at York.
John Dyer’s excellent photographic record of those times includes No. 60037 Hyperion at Edinburgh Waverley on 30/7/60, No. 60062 Minoru at York on 12/4/62, No. 60081 Shotover At Leeds Neville Hill on 12/8/62, No. 60086 Gainsborough also at Neville Hill on the same date, No. 60092 Fairway at Carlisle on 5/8/60, No. 60093 Coronach in Doncaster works on 30/4/62 and No. 60112 St Simon at York in August 1956.
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