The LNER A4 Pacifics

On the this page we saw one of the original Gresley Pacifies designed in 1922, which proved the mainstay of L.N.E.R. (London & North Eastern Railway) express motive power until the mid-1930s.

In 1935, however, there appeared the first of the streamlined 'A4 ' class 4-6-2s which were Gresley's crowning achievement and whose feats have since become almost legendary.

Basically an ' A3 ' with 250 Ib. boiler pressure, the thirty-five 'A4s' had three 18i in. x 26 in. cylinders and 6 ft. 8 in. driving wheels; their streamlined exterior was a highly successful publicity feature as well as saving power at speeds above 80-90 m.p.h., and until the outbreak of war these magnificent engines almost daily reached three-figure speeds with such trains as the ' Coronation' and ' Silver Jubilee.'

Most of them were named after birds, and in July 1938 one of these, ' Mallard,' achieved a speed of 126 mph which still stands as the world record for steam.

But it was not only in the realm of speed in which the 'A4s ' excelled. During the war they were called upon to haul trains far heavier than any ever handled before or since in the UK. Twenty-two and twenty-three-coach loads became common, and in April 1940 'Silver Link ' headed no fewer than twenty-five coaches, about 850 tons gross, from King's Cross to Newcastle, almosy 300 miles.

Our picture shows two of the 'A4s,' 'Falcon ' and ' Dominion of New Zealand,' ready to head expresses out of King's Cross. The Mallard can be seen at the National Railway Museum in York, England.