Rule Britannias

For a long time, or so it seemed, there were certain Brits that were beyond reach for us LM spotters. East Anglia appeared to be a world away. Stratford, Norwich Thorpe and March remained as just names on a map. Eventually, of course, we didn’t have to go and search out these intriguing namers that we needed to complete the set, because Hereward the Wake, Coeur-de-Lion, Alfred the Great, etc, came to us, instead.

The 55-strong Britannia Class Pacifics were designed by Robert Riddles for British Railways and introduced in 1951. They were classified as 7P6F. They were well-proportioned and impressive locomotives, although they only enjoyed relatively short lives, lasting until the end of steam in 1968. Two members of the class, Nos. 70000 Britannia and 70013 Oliver Cromwell have been preserved.

I saw all the BrIts and most of them many times. Some examples were so commonplace within our sphere of movement that we ridiculed their frequent re-appearances from the platform ends, even renaming Flying Dutchman as Flying Dustbin, and probably rewarding its seemingly inevitable return with a volley of abuse, for good measure.

John Dyer photographed the Brits fairly regularly and included here are shots of Nos. 70000 Britannia at Wigan North Western, 70023 Venus at Saltney, 70024 Vulcan at Chester General [all on 26/8/65], 70028 Royal Star at Preston on 15/7/64, 70039 Sir Christopher Wren at Chester in August 1965 and 70046 Anzac at Chester, again, this time in July 1964.