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60009 Union of South Africa is a LNER Class A4 steam locomotive built at Doncaster Works on 16 April 1937. It is one of six surviving A4s. Its mainline certification expired in April 2020. As the locomotive is subject to a boiler inspection, it was moved to the East Lancashire Railway as the original plan was to keep it running there until the end of boiler certificate and then send it somewhere else for static display, but a cracked boiler tube forced it into retirement prematurely. It was briefly renamed Osprey during part of the 1980s and 1990s due to political opposition against apartheid in South Africa at the time.
Built by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1937 at Doncaster Works and originally numbered 4488, it was named after the Union of South Africa. It had previously been allocated the name Osprey and painted in LNER Apple Green livery on 17 April 1937, but was renamed and repainted into LNER Garter Blue to operate The Coronation . It eventually carried the name Osprey in the 1980s and 1990s. [1] This was due to the contemporary political opposition against South Africa, which undertook a controversial policy of racial apartheid from 1948 to 1994. The name Osprey had previously been carried by A4 No. 4494 (renamed after the LNER director Andrew K. McCosh after 1942) and LNER Peppercorn Class A1 No. 60131 from 1949 to 1965. 60009's name has since reverted to Union of South Africa. The works number was 1853; the plaques are located in the cab itself and not on the exterior cab sides as is the usual practice.
The springbok plaque on the side of the locomotive was donated on 12 April 1954 by a Bloemfontein newspaper proprietor. Only the one plaque was fitted on the left hand side of the locomotive. Two cast Springbok plaques were given to John Cameron in the mid-1970s and these were mounted on the cabsides. They have since been removed during overhauls but the original boiler side plaque remains. 60009 is fitted with an American, Crosby chime whistle in common with other members of its class.
Union of South Africa has worn many liveries throughout its career. The first livery it wore was as 4488 in garter blue, applied on 19 April 1937. The next livery applied was LNER wartime black on 21 March 1942. This livery was amended on 14 August 1943 when the "L" and "R" were removed to confuse potential spies, leaving the all-black locomotive with just "NE" on the tender. 21 February 1947 saw Union of South Africa regain garter blue with red and white lining. Its number was changed to just "9" on 12 January 1946, under the renumbering scheme of Nigel Gresley's successor, Edward Thompson. It gained a stainless steel number 9 during this repaint. On 4 August 1949, 60009 was repainted in the standard British Railways express passenger blue livery as 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley. Finally on 2 October 1952, Union of South Africa was painted in British Railways green livery. It has worn this livery throughout preservation to date.
As with all 35 of the Gresley A4 pacific steam locomotives, Union of South Africa was fitted with streamlined valances, or side skirting, when it was built. This was found to hinder maintenance and, as with the rest of the class, it was removed. 4488 lost its valances during a works visit 21 March 1942.
60009 has been fitted with 14 boilers during its career: 8951, 9129 (a new-build boiler fitted 9 November 1940), 8955 (from 4492 Dominion of New Zealand, 13 January 1945), 9128 (from 2512 Silver Fox, 9 February 1946), 8957 (from 4490 Empire of India, 5 May 1948), 9027 (from 60028 Walter K Whigham, 4 August 1949 – this boiler was renumbered 29279 on 23 November 1950), 29285 (from 60032 Gannet, 22 April 1954), 29278 (from 60013 Dominion of New Zealand, 18 November 1958), 27965 (a new-build boiler, 17 February 1960), 27961 (from 60024 Kingfisher, 19 July 1961) and 29337 (from 60023 Golden Eagle, 6 November 1963).
60009 has had five tenders through its career, of two differing types. The first tender it had was a 1928 pattern streamlined corridor tender. This was a rebuild of a tender fitted to a Class A1 or A3 beforehand, being streamlined and fitted to 4488 from new. This was later changed for a new-build streamlined corridor tender from 1948 – 1963. After its withdrawal, 60009 donated its tender for conversion to a second, water carrying only tender for 4472 Flying Scotsman. [2] Currently 60009 is fitted with a 1928 pattern streamlined corridor tender, allowing its cab crew to be changed whilst the locomotive is hauling passenger trains. This tender was originally fitted to the LNER's experimental high-pressure Nº 10000. [3] The tenders it has had were: 5325 (17 April 1937 – 22 March 1948), 5636 (5 May 1948 – 14 May 1948), 5591 (14 May 1948 – 16 July 1963), 5332 (6 November 1963 – 1 June 1966) and 5484 (17 July 1966 – 10 September 1966).
60009 had a double chimney fitted on 18 November 1958. This feature was first fitted to 4468 Mallard back in 1938. As the safety requirements were tightened after the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash, Automatic Warning Systems was fitted to all locomotives. 60009 was so fitted on 17 February 1960. At the same time this was done, a Stone-Smith type speed recorder was also fitted.
Union of South Africa was allocated to Haymarket shed in Edinburgh from new and 20 May 1962 it had its only shed transfer to Aberdeen.
On 24 October 1964 it hauled the last booked steam-hauled train from London King's Cross. It was twenty minutes late through Grantham owing to a broken rail at High Dyke. It was the last steam locomotive to be overhauled at Doncaster whilst in service in November 1963. [4] It was withdrawn from British Railways service on 1 June 1966.
Purchased by John Cameron in July 1966, 60009 was preserved on the now-defunct Lochty Private Railway in Fife, Scotland, travelling the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of track near Anstruther.
In 1973 the loco left the Lochty Private Railway by road and was taken to Ladybank to be placed back on the National Network. From there it was taken to Kirkcaldy and was based in the former goods shed, from where it worked occasional tours from the Fife town. After a few years at Kirkcaldy it moved to Markinch and took up residency in the former goods shed, where it stayed until May 1994 – with the exception of a couple of years in a shed in the yard at nearby Thornton.
Following the 1989 overhaul it started to work railtours all over the UK. These ranged from Plymouth in the south-west to Inverness in the north, from Holyhead in the west to Norwich in the east. 60009 also visited numerous main line connected preserved railways. It has accumulated the highest mileage of any locomotive in the class.
In May 1994 the locomotive left its Markinch base for the last time, albeit on the back of a low loader bound for the Severn Valley Railway, Bridgnorth for repairs. Its route took it over the Forth Road Bridge and in doing so became the only steam locomotive to cross both the Forth Bridge and the adjacent road bridge.
After a repair in January 2007 it left the Severn Valley Railway and went to Crewe for fitting of on-train monitoring recorder (OTMR) equipment. [5] In April 2007 it returned home to Scotland with the Railway Touring Company's The Great Britain railtour, and hence to its new base at Thornton. Later in 2007 it hauled the regular Scarborough Spa Express from York to Scarborough via Knaresborough, Harrogate and Leeds.
In 2008 continued to work with the Railway Touring Company, pulling trains running between York and Edinburgh on several occasions during the first half of 2008. Union of South Africa appeared at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway LNER Festival 2008, along with 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley and 60019 Bittern, the first time that all three A4s had been together in preservation.
In light of the expiry of its boiler certificate, Union of South Africa arrived at Pete Waterman's LNWR Workshops at Crewe in 2010 to undergo an extensive overhaul. It returned to steam in mid-2012, hauling its first tours for West Coast Railways on 22 and 23 July. [6]
On 9 September 2015, 60009 hauled a train carrying Queen Elizabeth II along with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to officially re-open the Borders Railway between Edinburgh Waverley and Tweedbank. The locomotive subsequently operated railtours on the line throughout September. In 2017 John Cameron announced that 60009 would be withdrawn when its boiler ticket expires and placed in the Farming and Railway Visitor Centre in Fife. [7] [8] In March 2019 a 12-month extension to the boiler certificate was granted. [9] On 7 March 2020 it hauled its last main line charter – from Ealing Broadway to York via the Midland Main Line – and was then stored at the National Railway Museum. [10] [11] In October 2020 it was hauled from York to the East Lancashire Railway (ELR), where it entered service in April 2021. [12] It was due to remain operational on the ELR until its boiler certificate expire in April 2022. However, a cracked boiler tube was discovered in early October 2021 and it was retired with immediate effect. Its last public trains were on 3 September 2021, when the second loco in steam was fellow Gresley Pacific, A3 class No 60103 'Flying Scotsman'. In May 2022, Union of South Africa was placed on static display at the Bury Transport Museum in Bury, Greater Manchester. [13] [14] [15] As of April 2023, the locomotive has returned to Fife for static display at John Cameron's Farming and Railway Visitor Centre to be opened at his Balbuthie Farm. It will be displayed with his other locomotive, former LNER K4 class 61994 "The Great Marquess".
The LNER Class A4 is a class of streamlined 4-6-2 steam locomotive designed by Nigel Gresley for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1935. Their streamlined design gave them high-speed capability as well as making them instantly recognisable, and one of the class, 4468 Mallard, holds the record as the world's fastest steam locomotive. Thirty-five of the class were built to haul express passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line route from London Kings Cross via York to Newcastle, and later via Newcastle to Edinburgh, Scotland. They remained in service on the East Coast Main Line until the early 1960s when they were replaced by Deltic diesel locomotives; they themselves proving to be worthy successors to the A4s. Several A4s saw out their remaining days until 1966 in Scotland, particularly on the Aberdeen – Glasgow express trains, for which they were used to improve the timing from 3.5 to 3 hours.
LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard is a 4-6-2 ("Pacific") steam locomotive built in 1938 for operation on the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley. Its streamlined, wind tunnel tested design allowed it to haul long distance express passenger services at high speeds. On 3 July 1938, Mallard broke the world speed record for steam locomotives at 126 mph (203 km/h), which still stands today.
LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman is a 4-6-2 "Pacific" steam locomotive built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley. It was employed on long-distance express passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line by LNER and its successors, British Railways' Eastern and North Eastern Regions, notably on The Flying Scotsman service between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley after which it was named.
60008 Dwight D Eisenhower is an LNER Class A4 steam locomotive named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, the United States General of the Army.
4464Bittern is a London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class A4 steam locomotive. Built for the LNER and completed on 18 December 1937 at Doncaster Works as works number 1866, it received number 4464. After that it was renumbered 19 on 16 August 1946 under the LNER 1946 renumbering scheme, and finally 60019 by British Railways on 10 October 1948, after nationalisation. Of the 35 strong class, it is one of six to survive into preservation but it is one of only two currently scheduled to be certified for mainline use.
60007 Sir Nigel Gresley is an LNER Class A4 4-6-2 ("Pacific") steam locomotive built to a design of Sir Nigel Gresley in 1937 at Doncaster Works for operation on the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). The locomotive holds the post-war speed record for steam locomotives on British Railways. The locomotive was withdrawn from service in 1966 and purchased for preservation the same year; it is one of six A4s to be preserved.
4489 Dominion of Canada is an LNER Class A4 steam locomotive. It is a 4-6-2 locomotive built to the same design by Sir Nigel Gresley as the more famous Mallard. There were 35 A4 locomotives built in total. Originally numbered 4489, it was renumbered 10 on 10 May 1946, under the LNER 1946 renumbering scheme of Edward Thompson and, after nationalisation in 1948, British Railways added 60000 to its number so it became 60010 on 27 October 1948. It was renumbered back to 4489 following a cosmetic restoration at the National Railway Museum in York during late 2012 and early 2013.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Thompson Class B1 is a class of steam locomotive designed by Edward Thompson for medium mixed traffic work.
The London and North Eastern Railway LNER Gresley Classes A1 and A3 locomotives represented two distinct stages in the history of the British 4-6-2 "Pacific" steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley. They were designed for main line passenger services and later express passenger services, initially on the Great Northern Railway (GNR), a constituent company of the London and North Eastern Railway after the amalgamation of 1923, for which they became a standard design. The change in class designation to A3 reflected the fitting to the same chassis of a higher pressure boiler with a greater superheating surface and a small reduction in cylinder diameter, leading to an increase in locomotive weight. Eventually all of the A1 locomotives were rebuilt, most to A3 specifications, but no. 4470 was completely rebuilt as Class A1/1.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class K4 is a class of 2-6-0 steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley for the steep grades of the West Highland Line.
The London and North Eastern Railway Class U1 was a solitary 2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt locomotive designed for banking coal trains over the Worsborough Bank, a steeply graded line in South Yorkshire and part of the Woodhead Route. It was both the longest and the most powerful steam locomotive ever to run in Britain. It was built in 1925 with the motion at each end being based on an existing 2-8-0 design. The original number was 2395, and it was renumbered 9999 in March 1946, and then 69999 after nationalisation in 1948, although it retained its cab-side plate bearing its original number throughout its life. The locomotive ran for some time as an oil burner, and was tried out on the Lickey Incline in 1949–1950 and again, after the electrification of its home line, in 1955. These trials were unsuccessful, and so the locomotive was withdrawn in 1955 and scrapped.
LNER Peppercorn Class A1 No. 60163 Tornado is a 4-6-2 steam locomotive completed in 2008 to an original design by Arthur Peppercorn. It is the first new build British mainline steam locomotive since 1960, and the only Peppercorn Class A1 in existence after the original batch were scrapped. In 2017, Tornado became the first steam locomotive to officially reach 100 mph (160 km/h) on British tracks in over 50 years.
The LNER W1 No. 10000 was an experimental steam locomotive fitted with a high pressure water-tube boiler. Nigel Gresley was impressed by the results of using high-pressure steam in marine applications and so in 1924 he approached Harold Yarrow of shipyard and boilermakers Yarrow & Company of Glasgow to design a suitable boiler for a railway locomotive, based on Yarrow's design.
The GER Classes S46, D56 and H88 were three classes of similar 4-4-0 steam locomotive designed by James Holden and A. J. Hill (H88) for the Great Eastern Railway.
The London and North Eastern Railway Class P2 was a class of 2-8-2 steam locomotives designed by Sir Nigel Gresley for working heavy express trains over the harsh Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line. As they were to serve on Scottish expresses, they were given famous names from Scottish lore.
LNER Class A4 4902 Seagull was one of 35 Doncaster built LNER Class A4 Gresley Pacific steam locomotives.
LNER Class A4 60034 Lord Faringdon was one of 35 Doncaster built Class A4 Gresley Pacific steam locomotives.
The streamlined East Anglian service of the London and North Eastern Railway was introduced on 27 September 1937, soon after the Coronation and the West Riding Limited, but differed from those – and from the Silver Jubilee of 1935 – in several respects. It did not use new Class A4 4-6-2 locomotives but instead existing Class B17 4-6-0s were given a streamlined casing; although new carriages were built, these were neither articulated nor streamlined; there was no special livery; it ran at speeds not much greater than those achieved by existing expresses on the Norwich line; and there was no supplementary fare.
LNER 3442 The Great Marquess is a member of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class K4 designed by Nigel Gresley for the steep grades of the West Highland Line. It was renumbered 1994 in the LNER's 1946 renumbering scheme, and then renumbered 61994 by British railways after the 1948 nationalisation of Britain's railways.
Locomotive Services Limited is a train operating company in Great Britain. The company operates rail tours using heritage steam, diesel and electric locomotives with support from associated companies and trusts.