The Ones That Got Away

RAIL ICONS SAVED BUT THEN SCRAPPED!

THE ON T HE ONES THAT GOT AWAY THA AT GOT AW WAY ROBIN JONE ROBIN JONESS

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CONTENTS

A Blue Pullman diesel-electric set passes Acocks Green on its way from Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill in 1963. A headline-grabbing iconic image of the modernisation of British Railways in the Sixties, not a single car from this luxury train was preserved for future generations. MICHAEL MENSING

CHAPTER 01: CHAPTER 02: CHAPTER 03: CHAPTER 04: CHAPTER 05: CHAPTER 06: CHAPTER 07: CHAPTER 08: MAIN PICTURE: The first LNER P2 2-8-2 No. 2001 Cock o’ the North and its five classmates were scrapped. Now the seventh P2 is being built with a completion date of 2022. A1SLT INSETS: Left: The Blue Pullman, fabled luxury train of the Sixties. METROPOLITAN CAMMELL

CHAPTER 09: CHAPTER 10: CHAPTER 11: CHAPTER 12: CHAPTER 13: CHAPTER 14:

Middle: The Gresley A4, No. 2509 Silver Link, at Grantham in July 1937. J WHALEY/COLOUR-RAIL

CHAPTER 15:

Right: Visiting new-build Manning Wardle 2-6-2T Lyd masquerading as long-lost predecessor Lew at the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway’s autumn steam gala on September 28, 2019. TONY NICHOLSON

CHAPTER 16: CHAPTER 17: CHAPTER 18:

AUTHOR: Robin Jones

Introduction Gresley P2: Return of the British behemoth ‘Black Five’ 44781: A swift end to fame Salamanca: the small-scale survivor Chapter 4: Stanier the vandal?

The biggest class of them all – but not one survived They were not saved at Barry Silver Link: not fast enough to save!

Ben Alder: ‘Preserved’ Scots classic scrapped after 14 years – and nobody knows why Three panniers lost at the Severn Valley Last Mumbles tramcar: fiery end for a double fi rst Blue Pullman: style and luxury did not save a Sixties icon Lynton & Barnstaple Lew: the Holy Grail of steam Moel Tryfan: they saved the line – but scrapped a loco!

10000/1: Forebears of the modern age – but scrapped within 20 years Coronation: the record breaker was scrapped… but the impostor survives Steam sacrilege in the 21st century No place for bespoke bankers The V4: Recreating Sir Nigel Gresley’s last design

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INTRODUCTION

GWR chief mechanical engineer George Jackson Churchward revolutionised steam locomotive development with his Saint class 4-6-0s, which dated from 1902, but that did not stop British Railways scrapping the last one in 1953. However, a new Saint – the 78th in the series – was steaming in the spring of 2019, after the Great Western Society showed it was determined that this hugely influential type should not be allowed to get away. Members spent a marathon 45 years recreating one from the later Hall class No. 4942 Maindy Hall, numbered 2999 and named Lady of Legend. It is pictured on May 6, the day of its public launch at Didcot Railway Centre, when a Saint could be seen at the head of a passenger train for the first time in 66 years. ROBIN JONES

RIGHTING THE WRONGS

of an indifferent past

B

ritain invented the steam locomotive and, in doing so, shrank the globe. Now we are again leading the market, this time in the sphere of railway heritage.

In 1951, the Talyllyn Railway became the first in the world to be taken over and run by volunteers. In 2019, the UK proudly boasts 158 operational heritage railways, with a total length of 562 miles and 460 stations. Not only that, but they attract more than 13 million visitors a year, earning themselves a total exceeding £130 million annually and contributing around £400 million to the UK economy.

Furthermore, they are a phenomenal

cultural, historical and educational resource, not least of all by virtue of the fact that landmark locomotives from both Britain and global transport history have survived to be admired and, in some cases, travelled behind.

Flying Scotsman, Mallard, City of Truro, Stephenson’s Rocket – these are

all part of our heritage fleet and for decades household names in their own right.

But what about the ground-breaking locomotives that laid down markers in our railway history – and yet for various reasons ended up in the scrapyard rather than in the museum berth that their achievements richly warranted?

They are The Ones That Got Away,

and this volume looks at the key locomotives that we have lost… and in some cases are now working to replicate to plug missing gaps in the rail heritage record.

So why were the last examples of more historical locomotives not set aside for the benefit of future generations? A simple reason is that familiarity breeds complacency and contempt.

If, for example, you formed a charitable trust and fundraising drive to buy and preserve your current verymuch-run-of-the-mill car, you would be considered stark raving bonkers. Yet in 30 years’ time, when that car was the only one of its kind left in the world, you

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would be hailed as a visionary.

When steam locomotives were the order of the day, there were those railway officials who saw not the slightest merit in saving ‘antique’ classes for posterity, and had them scrapped.

One of the worst examples here was none other than William Stanier, who also designed some of the world’s fi nest and fastest steam locomotives (and lived long enough to see most of them cut up too!).

And when a National Collection of locomotives to be officially saved was fi nally drawn up in the Sixties, glaring absences were often too astonishing for words, especially to a modern audience.

By contrast, a shining gem in the history of railway heritage was the decision by just one scrap dealer, Dai Woodham of Barry, South Wales, who one day decided to concentrate on cutting up redundant wagons and save his rows of rusting steam engines “for a rainy day”.

That decision led to 213 of them being saved for preservation purposes, and the creation of a backbone of today’s heritage sector.

The very early preservation movement, hampered by an acute lack of funds and blueprints for future success, in a small number of cases also sent historical stock to the cutter’s torch.

However, railway preservation has

repeatedly proved itself to be the art of the possible, and while we long lament the lost steam (and fi rst-generation diesel) treasures of the past, it has been proved that given sufficient public support it is possible to bring them back from oblivion.

Through the building of A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has established itself as a clear world leader in the production of new engines for the 21st century, and its current project to create the seventh member of Nigel Gresley’s P2 Mikados – fi lling a major gap in the heritage fleet with a new example of Britain’s most powerful express passenger locomotive – is now itself proceeding at remarkable speeds, as highlighted in Chapter One. Bad mistakes were made in the past right across the board, but remarkable progress is now being made in righting the heritage ship.

Robin Jones November 2019

A nameplate on the walls of the National Railway Museum at York recalls the first of Nigel Gresley’s world-beating A4 streamlined Pacifics, No. 2509 Silver Link, which sadly was not preserved for future generations. ROBIN JONES

BELOW: The most glaring example of one that so nearly got away was Gresley A3 Pacific No. 60103 Flying Scotsman. Widely considered to be the world’s most famous steam locomotive, it is here with us today because businessman and Ffestiniog Railway saviour, the late Alan Pegler, bought it straight out of British Railways service in 1963 to keep it from the scrapyard. Those who were responsible for compiling the list of historic locomotives to save for the National Collection at a time when diesel and electric traction was fast replacing steam did not consider it – or any other A3 for that matter – worthy of inclusion. It was only in 2004, following a public appeal, that Flying Scotsman was bought for the nation and placed in the care of the National Railway Museum. The guaranteed crowd-puller is seen at Peterborough heading the last leg of the Railway Touring Company’s ‘White Rose’ tour from King’s Cross to York and back to West Hampstead on June 18, 2016.

ROBIN JONES

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Chapter 1

RETURN OF THE

BRITISH BEHEMOTH

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Britain’s historic locomotive fleet is the envy of the world, with many of the groundbreaking classes represented either on heritage lines, in museums or running tours on the national network. However, what is arguably the biggest ‘one that got away’ was also the most powerful express passenger steam locomotive to operate in Britain – for none of Sir Nigel Gresley’s P2 2-8-2 Mikados survived. Now a £5 million project to build the seventh member of the class, No. 2007 Prince of Wales, is making rapid strides towards filling that massive gap in the heritage sector, write Mark Allatt and David Elliott.

A colourised image of LNER P2 2-8-2 No. 2001 Cock o’ the North standing at King’s Cross before making a demonstration run on June 1, 1934. The locomotive had been outshopped from Doncaster Works the previous month. FR HEBRON/RAIL ARCHIVE STEPHENSON

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P2 No. 2003 Lord President, which was outshopped in June 1936, passes through Princes Street Gardens as it leaves Edinburgh Waverley with the 5.15pm express to Aberdeen in 1937. AC CAWSTON/RAS COLLECTION

F

ive years is arguably a very short time in the 200-year history of railways. The first member of Sir Nigel Gresley’s class P2 2-8-2 Mikados No. 2001 Cock o’ the North spent just four years in its original, iconic semistreamlined form, but its unique looks

cast a long shadow. So much so that The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the builder, owner and operator of the hugely popular new Peppercorn A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado – the first main line standard gauge steam locomotive to be completed since BR Standard 9F No. 92220 Evening Star in 1960 and the

Exuding raw steam power from every orifice: P2 No. 2002 Earl Marischal, which emerged from the works in October 1934. A1SLT

first by public subscription – formally announced its intention in September 2013 to build a new Mikado to recreate a Gresley class P2 in its original form.

Five years since the formal start of construction with the laying of the engine’s frames at Darlington Locomotive Works, the team is almost halfway to finishing the seventh class P2, No. 2007 Prince of Wales.

Providing the fundraising continues to keep pace with construction, Britain’s most powerful express passenger steam locomotive should be complete and undergoing tests and trials within three years, bringing one of the most magnificent designs ever to have run in Great Britain back to the main line after a 75-year absence.

More than £2 million has been spent on the project to date, with more than £2.6 million raised and more than £3.3 million pledged of the estimated £5 million required to complete this massive locomotive.

The Gresley class P2s were the most powerful express passenger locomotives to operate in the UK. They were of a 2-8-2, or ‘Mikado’, wheel arrangement, in itself unique for a main line express passenger locomotive in the UK. They were designed by Sir Nigel

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The first P2, No. 2001 Cock o’ the North, stands alongside No. 2005 Thane of Fife, which was outshopped in August 1936 and, by virtue of its A4-style streamlined casing, looks like a different class of locomotive altogether. A1SLT

Gresley in the 1930s to haul 600-ton trains on the arduous Edinburgh to Aberdeen route to avoid double-heading following the successful introduction of third-class sleeping carriages on ‘The Aberdonian’.

The original six P2s were built in Doncaster between 1934-36 for use on the main line between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, where their enormous power and adhesion was used to haul the heaviest trains over this line of twisting curves and severe gradients.

The locomotives were given evocative names associated with the route over which they worked: No. 2001 Cock o’ the North, No. 2002 Earl Marischal, No. 2003 Lord President, No. 2004 Mons Meg, No. 2005 Thane of Fife and No. 2006 Wolf of Badenoch.

When No. 2001 Cock o’ the North was

completed in May 1934 it was a truly remarkable locomotive with many unusual and experimental features: • 2-8-2 Mikado wheel arrangement • 50sq ft firebox grate • Kylchap chimney/blastpipe arrangement • ACFI feed water heater • Lentz rotary cam poppet valve gear • Semi-streamlined and a V-shaped cab front • All-welded tender with spoked wheels • Chime whistle • Gill Sans nameplate No. 2001 was followed by what could be considered as the ‘straight sister’ – No. 2002 Earl Marischal – which was completed in October 1934 with the more conventional Walschaerts/Gresley

valve gear, no feedwater heater and a conventionally constructed tender.

The locomotive was later fitted with an additional pair of smoke deflectors due to its softer exhaust.

From June to September 1936 the four ‘production’ class P2s were delivered from Doncaster Works.

No. 2003 Lord President was the first of the streamliners and could be described as the ‘standard’ locomotive.

No. 2004 Mons Meg was fitted with a bypass valve to divert exhaust from the blastpipe to alleviate the fire being lifted by the locomotive’s harsh exhaust.

No. 2005 Thane of Fife was bizarrely single chimney and was therefore always a comparatively poor steamer.

No. 2006 Wolf of Badenoch was fitted with a longer combustion chamber in its firebox, a modification that would

WHERE DID THE CHIME WHISTLE COME FROM?

P2 class doyen No. 2001 Cock o’ the North in full flight on a rake of LNER teak coaches. Tornado builder The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust is well on the way to replicating scenarios like this with the completion of No. 2007 Prince of Wales in 2022. A1SLT

Cock o’ the North was the first standard gauge main line locomotive in Great Britain to be fitted with a chime whistle.

Gresley was inspired to fit them after hearing one on the 15in gauge Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway’s Canadian-outline Pacifics.

No. 2001 was fitted with the whistle destined for RHDR No. 10, the whistle donated to Gresley by his friend and RHDR figurehead Captain Howey.

Gresley’s links with the Kent seaside line went back to 1927 as the railway’s first locomotives were effectively onethird scale Gresley class A1s.

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Peterborough, June 1934. No. 2001 Cock o’ the North backs down into the station ready for the return journey to King’s Cross. AH LUCAS/WWW. TRANSPORTTREASURY.CO.UK

be adopted for the post-war Pacifics and effectively acting as a prototype for Tornado’s boiler.

No. 2002 entered Doncaster Works in October 1936 for its first heavy repair and also received a streamlined front end. No. 2001 was similarly treated in September 1937 with the ACFI feed water heater removed and its poppet valves replaced with Walschaerts/ Gresley valve gear.

Sadly, the class P2 design was never fully developed by Gresley due to the understandable distractions of his A4 Pacifics with their streamlined trains, the V2s, K4s, V4s, the EM1 electric

prototype for the Woodhead Route electrification and, of course, the Second World War. Although undoubtedly a success in the role they were designed for, the P2s fell victim to internal LNER politics and were rebuilt into ungainly class A2/2 Pacifics in 1943-4 by Gresley’s successor, Edward Thompson. In this, their final form, they were not particularly successful and were scrapped between 1959 and 1961.

No. 2001 hit the headlines throughout the 1930s with numerous depot open day visits, a massive chocolate sculpture in Dundee, its visit to the SNCF test plant

at Vitry-sur-Seine near Paris, which was covered by Movitone News, and even having a Spitfire named after it.

Cock o’ the North’s time in the limelight may have been short-lived, but it left a lasting impression, and so strong is the support for a new class P2 ‘Mikado’ that the seventh, No. 2007 Prince of Wales, is rapidly taking shape inside The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s Darlington Locomotive Works, just across the former scrap sidings from Head of Steam: Darlington Railway Museum where the Stockton & Darlington Railway’s Locomotion No. 1 from 1825 is on exhibition.

A2/2 Pacific No. 60505 Thane of Fife in York yard on May 26, 1958. The locomotive was rebuilt from its original P2 format on January 1943, and was scrapped in November 1959 – a classic example of a landmark type that ‘got away’ twice! Behind it is Gresley A3 Pacific No. 60085 Manna. BEN BROOKSBANK* 10 The Ones That Got Away

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A Newcastle express ready to leave King’s Cross station behind A2/2 Pacific No. 60503 Lord President, rebuilt by Edward Thompson from its original P2 incarnation, on Whit Sunday evening, 1958. BEN BROOKSBANK*

NEW P2 NAMED PRINCE OF WALES IN HONOUR OF PRINCE CHARLES ON HIS 65TH BIRTHDAY

Steam fan Prince Charles in the cab of another Sir Nigel Gresley classic, No. 4468 Mallard, during his visit to the National Railway Museum in York on July 22, 2013 following the launch of the Mallard 75 celebrations, marking the anniversary of that locomotive’s world steam locomotive speed record of 126mph on Stoke Bank on the East Coast Main Line in Lincolnshire on July 3, 1938. ROBIN JONES

On November 14, 2013, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust announced that the name of its new Gresley P2 2-8-2 steam locomotive would be Prince of Wales.

It was to be named in honour of HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, to coincide with his 65th birthday celebrations and the Queen kindly approved the use of His Royal Highness’s name for the locomotive.

No. 60163 Tornado was officially named by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at York station on February 19, 2009.

There have been many steam locomotives named after the Prince of Wales over the years. These included Gresley class A3 No. 2553 (later No. 60054) Prince of Wales, sister locomotive to No. 4472 Flying Scotsman, which was named by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) on a visit to Doncaster Works on November 11, 1926.

This locomotive was scrapped in 1964.

Since its official naming, Tornado has hauled the Royal Train on no less than three occasions on behalf of Prince Charles.

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BUILDING AN ‘IMPROVED’ P2 IN THE CRADLE OF THE RAILWAYS

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust – registered charity and builder of No. 60163 Tornado, which clocked 101mph near Thirsk during an early morning test run on the East Coast Main Line on April 12, 2017 – is building the seventh member of this class at its Darlington Locomotive Works (DLW) over seven to 10 years.

The project will demonstrate how the design can be fully realised through use of modern computer design techniques, enabling the new locomotive to deliver its full potential hauling passenger trains at high speed across today’s national network.

How appropriate is it that this ingenious town – and cradle of the railways – is giving birth to the future of main line steam and a project utilising the latest technology?

The Gresley P2 makes for the perfect new-build candidate for the trust to follow on from Tornado as No. 2007 shares approximately 60% of its parts with it, including the diagram 118a boiler.

It could be said that everything behind the rear driving axle and above the running plate (apart from the ‘tin work’) is more or less the same as on the new Peppercorn A1.

The thinking behind this is two-fold;

The drawings for No. 2001 Cock o’ the North. A1SLT

not only does it mean the trust can utilise the pre-existing patterns made for No. 60163’s components, but it can also utilise a common pool of spare parts.

However, the P2 class wasn’t fully developed by Gresley and although a much-admired design, it presents considerable scope for improvement.

The trust therefore gave its project team a clear mission: “To develop, build and operate an improved Gresley class P2 Mikado steam locomotive for main line and preserved railway use”.

AS SUCH, THE P2 PROJECT HAS CLEAR DESIGN PRINCIPLES:

• No. 2007 must be aesthetically similar to No. 2001 • Whole locomotive to be drawn in 3D CAD • Existing design to be used except: • Alterations to alleviate known problems with original design • Changes required to meet modern operating requirements • Equivalent Tornado design to be used where appropriate • Improvements to assist maintenance and life-cycle costs • Materials at least equal to and preferably better than original • Achievement of compliance with rail industry standards.

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THE PRINCIPAL AREAS OF REDESIGN ARE THEREFORE:

* Develop improved pony truck and frame design using VAMPIRE® modelling data to confirm ride characteristics * Investigate and confirm valve gear to be fitted. Choices are: improved Lentz/Franklin, Walschaerts or British Caprotti * Investigate and reduce risk of crank axle failure apparent in original design * Investigate and confirm design and method of construction of cylinders – cast versus fabrication.

BELOW: A view of what the seventh member of Gresley’s P2 2-8-2, No. 2007 Prince of Wales, will look like once completed, based on a colourised archive photograph. A1SLT

The completion of the £3 million new Peppercorn A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado placed The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust at the forefront of new-build steam locomotive projects, and it is well on the way to recreating another of the biggest ‘ones that got away’ in P2 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales.

Tornado is pictured at York heading the ‘Yorkshire Pullman’ from King’s Cross to Scarborough on June 15, 2019. ROBIN JONES

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OTHER DESIGN CHANGES INCLUDE:

* Use of diagram 118A Tornado boiler * Use of A1 type Timken roller bearings * Substitution of fabricated frame stays for original cast design * Modification of brake system from vacuum only to BR type dual air/ vacuum installation * Incorporation of rocking grate and hopper ashpan * Reduce overall height to comply with modern ‘go-anywhere’ loading gauge * Fit modern comprehensive electrical system and safety equipment.

It has been argued that part of the reason for the P2s’ comparatively short lives as 2-8-2 Mikados was because of a number of inherent design flaws, including fracturing crank axles at an unacceptably high rate – at least five in 10 years for a class of only six locomotives.

The combination of the class P2s’ sheer power with more than 43,000lb of tractive effort, the locomotive’s surefootedness as a Mikado and the use of the same design of crank axle as that first used on Gresley’s A1 Pacific No. 4470 Great Northern in 1922 (but more

TV presenter James May made the first component for No. 2007, the smokebox dart, in Darlington Locomotive Works on February 20, 2014, and is pictured with one of the nameplates. A1SLT

than 40% more tractive effort) made the outcome fairly inevitable with our modern understanding of metallurgy.

Such afflictions are unlikely to affect Prince of Wales. David Elliott, the trust’s

Sparks fly as the cutting of the first main frame of No. 2007 gets under way. ROBIN JONES

WHY A MIKADO? The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte in the early 20th century.

In the notation a locomotive with one leading axle (two wheels) in front, then four driving axles (eight wheels) and then one trailing axle (two wheels) is classified as 2-8-2 and commonly referred to as a ‘Mikado’.

The name Mikado originated from a group of Japanese type 9700 2-8-2 locomotives that were built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the 3ft 6in gauge Nippon Railway of Japan in 1897.

In the 19th century, the Emperor of Japan was often referred to as ‘the Mikado’ in English, and the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Mikado had premiered in 1885 and achieved great popularity in both Britain and the US.

director of engineering, is effectively finishing the work that the ‘Great Man’ started but was unable to complete.

Although Prince of Wales will look very similar to Cock o’ the North, it is not a replica – and hence one of the reasons why it is numbered No. 2007, the next P2 in the sequence, as was the case with No. 60163 Tornado. The design of Prince of Wales has been updated to eliminate known weaknesses to make the Mikado suitable for today’s main line railway.

The crank axle has been manufactured to a modified design thanks to Finite Element Analysis conducted by railway engineering consultants Mott MacDonald and will now be more than strong enough to cope with a huge amount of tractive effort delivered to the track by Britain’s most powerful steam locomotive.

The largest component of all, the boiler, will be an improved version of Tornado’s, incorporating the lessons of its 10 years of main line operations and working at 250lb/sq.in (raised from the class P2’s original 220lb/sq.in).

The increased boiler pressure will help to ensure that the new locomotive will comply with today’s more restricted Network Rail loading gauge, reducing the outside cylinder diameter from 21in to 19¾in. In June 2019 the trust announced that it had placed a £1 million order with DB Meiningen for two diagram 118a boilers – ‘an heir and a spare’ – one for Prince of Wales and a spare for both locomotives with the former due for delivery in July 2021.

The revised cylinder block design, which will be fabricated from steel plate and tube instead of cast from iron as per the original, will also help to facilitate the reduction in width and also be considerably more thermally efficient.

Another major design challenge for

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In collaboration with the builders of No. 2007, model railway giant Hornby produced an OO-gauge version of No. 2001 Cock o’ the North in 2014. A1SLT

The Prince of Wales smokebox dart hot off James May’s lathe. A1SLT

the P2 Project was the choice of valve gear. No. 2001 was at fi rst equipped with Lentz rotary cam poppet valve gear with continuously variable cut-off. It was later fitted with modified stepped cams providing limited cut-off settings following excessive wear on original cams. This resulted in a considerable reduction in economy due to wide steps in cut-off and there were still problems with high wear rate.

David Elliott considered an improved version of Lentz/Franklin, Walschaerts or British Caprotti valve gear as developed for unique BR 8P Pacific No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester. A major design study has confi rmed the selection of a modified Lentz/Franklin valve gear with detailed improvements to the Lentz design by the Franklin Company of the US in the 1940s using stronger and

more durable components. Computer modelling will also help to realise the full potential of the poppet valves both from an efficiency and power output perspective.

This was much the preferred outcome for the P2 Project team as its members had built a Walschaerts locomotive before, were up for the challenge of developing the Lentz valve gear to work properly on a large locomotive and, most importantly, it meant that the distinctive semi-streamlined form of the original No. 2001 Cock o’ the North could be retained.

The A4-style front end used on the ‘production’ P2s and Nos. 2001-2 when initially rebuilt was much more efficient at smoke-lifting, which was essential as Walshaerts valve gear produces a much softer exhaust than Lentz valve gear.

Ben and Tim Godfrey, the grandsons of Sir Nigel Gresley, began the cutting of the mainframes for what will be the next of the LNER chief mechanical engineer’s masterpieces to be built – P2 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales. On May 21, 2014, the pair pressed the green button at Tata Steel in Scunthorpe to begin the profiling of the 21-ton frames, which had been rolled at the plant’s plate mill on April 23.

The profiling of the frames marked the start of the construction of Prince of Wales. Sadly, Tim passed away on December 7, 2017, after a short illness.

ROBIN JONES

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New P2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales rolled out of Darlington Locomotive Works in late 2018 to highlight the rapid progress that has been made since the project began.

DAVID ELLIOTT

THE WORLD’S FASTEST-DEVELOPING NEW-BUILD PROJECT The P2 Project has made significant progress over the past five years. In terms of money turned into metal, Prince of Wales is well over 40% complete, with the engine on its wheels and now recognisably a P2.

Its distinctive front end, with the D-shaped inclined smokebox door and stovepipe double chimney surrounded by the pair of elegantly curving smoke

lifting plates merges seamlessly with the boiler cladding which lead the eye towards the V-fronted cab.

The frames, apart from the cylinder block, are complete with frame stays, horn guides and sandboxes all in place.

At the time of writing, work has started on the pipe runs between the frames.

The sheer number of parts already acquired by the project is staggering.

P2 engineering director David Elliott (left) discusses the first driving wheel to be cast with the mayor and mayoress of Darlington while trust chairman Mark Allatt (right) looks on. William Cook Cast Products of Sheffield, the principal sponsor of Tornado, produced the P2’s eight 6ft 2in diameter driving wheels. A1SLT

Most restorations, which already have a substantially complete locomotive to work with, don’t make this progress in five years, let alone a complex newbuild project starting with just the drawings.

It took around nine years to get where the P2 Project now is with Prince of Wales with Tornado – but of course with No. 60163 the trust already had the cylinders on the frames because they were made to the original drawings and didn’t need modifying.

It has been said however that, component sharing aside, there would be no new class P2 without Tornado.

Although consideration was given to building a new Gresley P2 rather than a Peppercorn class A1 during the A1 Project’s gestation, the class A1 was the perfect first main line new-build project – it was a named ex-LNER express passenger locomotive, needed no significant design work, people remembered them and regretted their scrapping, and the linesiders who saw them in their swansong by 1990 had disposable income to spend on building a new one.

The big difference between the two projects is that the trust started the actual construction of Tornado about four years after the project was launched, whereas with Prince of Wales, work started almost immediately. The gap between the two new locomotives was to ensure that everything on No. 60163 worked as planned, to repay the £1 million debt incurred during its

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