LNER Class A4 4902 Seagull on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
LNER Class A4 4902 Seagull (or ''60033 Seagull,'' as it was renumbered under
LNER Class A4 4902 Seagull (or ''60033 Seagull,'' as it was renumbered under British Railways
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...
) was one of 35 Doncaster
Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...
built LNER Class A4
The LNER Class A4 is a class of streamlined 4-6-2 steam locomotive, steam locomotives 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 ins ...
Gresley Pacific steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...
s.
It entered service on 28 June 1938 and was withdrawn on 29 December 1962.
History
Like her famous sister ''Mallard
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...
'', ''Seagull'' was one of only four of the A4 Pacifics initially built with a double chimney and double Kylchap
The Kylchap steam locomotive exhaust system was designed and patented by French steam engineer André Chapelon, using a second-stage nozzle designed by the Finnish engineer Kyösti Kylälä, known as the ''Kylälä spreader'', with the com ...
blastpipe
The blastpipe is part of the exhaust system of a steam locomotive that discharges exhaust steam from the cylinders into the smokebox beneath the chimney in order to increase the draught through the fire.
History
The primacy of discovery of ...
, the rest of the class acquiring it in the late 1950s.
''4902 Seagull'' was based at Kings Cross and ran on the London-Edinburgh line.
When British Railways were nationalised and the LNER A4s were renumbered, ''60033 Seagull'' and two of her sisters ''E22 Mallard'' and ''60034 Lord Faringdon'' were used for the 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials
The 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials were organised by the newly nationalised British Railways (BR). Locomotives from the former "Big Four" constituent companies ( GWR, LMS, LNER, SR) were transferred to and worked on other regions. Official ...
. ''Seagull'' was used on the ex- GWR main line between London and Devonshire. Though ''Seagull'' didn't perform as well as the GWR locomotives which had been designed for that stretch, she performed better than ''Mallard'' and better than the SR and LMS competition.
60033 ''Seagull'' was withdrawn from Kings Cross Top Shed on 29 December 1962. She was broken up for scrap at Doncaster Works
Doncaster Railway Works is a railway workshop located in Doncaster, England.
Also referred to as ''The Plant'', it was established by the Great Northern Railway (England), Great Northern Railway in 1853, replacing the previous works in Boston, ...
on 23 January 1963.
Liveries, boilers and tenders
''Seagull'', Doncaster Works number 1876, was fitted with a Kylchap double blastpipe as from new, never having a single chimney. In her service life she wore a variety of liveries with different numbering schemes: Garter Blue as 4902 from her introduction, LNER black as of 27 May 1942, wartime black marked on tender as "NE" from 24 September 1943, renumbered as E33 on 31 October 1946, garter blue with no valances as of 5 December 1947, renumbered as 60033 on 10 April 1948, British Railways dark blue on 10 November 1950 and finally British Railways Brunswick green on 13 June 1952. Advanced Warning System (AWS) was fitted on 25 February 1953 and a Smith-Stone speed recorder was fitted on 8 June 1961. All of the class were fitted with streamlined valances, or side skirting, from new, but these were removed during the war to ease maintenance. 4902 lost her valances during a works visit on 27 May 1942. ''Seagull'' was fitted with eleven boilers during her twenty-four year career. These boilers were: 9030 (from construction), 8947 (from 4484 ''Falcon'', 24 September 1943), 8949 (from 60018 ''Sparrow Hawk'', 6 May 1949), 29278 (from 60025 ''Falcon'', 10 November 1950), 29313 (new-build, 13 June 1952), 29296 (from 60006 ''Sir Ralph Wedgewood'', 3 December 1953), 29301 (from 60022 ''Mallard'', 14 May 1955), 29290 (from 60029 ''Woodcock'', 13 June 1956), 29301 (from 60027 ''Merlin'', 5 March 1958), 29302 (from 60004 ''William Whitelaw'', 4 July 1959) and 27967 (new-build, 8 June 1961). ''Seagull'' was fitted with three tenders during her career: 5636 (28 June 1938 – 30 March 1948), 5325 (9 April 1948 – 28 May 1954) and 5332 (28 May 1954 – 29 December 1962). ''Seagull'' was allocated to only two depots during her career:Kings Cross Top Shed
Kings Cross Top Shed was a large steam locomotive maintenance and stabling depot just north of London King's Cross railway station, King's Cross railway station on the far side of Regent's Canal.
History
The first Great Northern Railway (Great ...
from new, Grantham from 23 April 1944 and Top Shed again from 21 March 1948.
References