The Gresley Pacifics

The first Pacific locomotive to run in Great Britain, Churchward's ' Great Bear' of 1908, was soon converted to a 4-6-0, and it fell to H. N. Gresley, C.M.E, of the Great Northern Railway, to introduce the first successful Pacific design with his ' Great Northern' of 1922.

Within a few years almost every heavy express train from King's Cross to Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh was handled by one of the big Gresley Pacifics, and by 1934 over seventy were in service on the L.N.E.R. main line. The majority were named after famous racehorses and, until the debut of the streamlined 'A4 ' engines, were responsible for some of the finest locomotive work in Britain.

In 1934 the German State Railway's ' Flying Hamburger ' diesel train was daily achieving speeds of up to 100 m.p.h. between Berlin and Hamburg. Gresley determined that steam was not to be outdone, and arranged test runs from London to Leeds and to Newcastle. On the former, ' Flying Scotsman' reached 100 m.p.h. at Essendine, and a few weeks later ' Papyrus ' achieved 108 m.p.h. with a train well over twice the weight of the German streamliner.

Soon after the war the last of the original engines of Class ' Al ' were rebuilt to Class ' A3 ' with higher boiler pressure, and it is one of these that is shown here, No. 60074, ' Harvester,' working a Leeds express through Hessle Quarry. Since this picture was taken the ' A3s ' were fitted with bats'-wing-type smoke deflectors of German pattern, designed to lift smoke and steam clear of the cab windows, but in all essentials they remained exactly as first designed.