100 Years Ago Today - Gresley's first Pacific "Great Northern"

[30368]

On April 11th 1922, Gresley's first pacific "Great Northern" was rolled out from Doncaster works and into railway history. I thought it might be interesting to reconsider this event and how Gresley's first A1 influenced steam locomotive design over the century since its birth. In Darlington people are building another locomotive, a 2-8-2, with an ancestory that can be traced directly back to that event of 1922. Many hundreds of locomotives were built by the LNER that followed the "Great Northern" template including all those Thompson and Peppercorn pacifics. Indeed, it is possible to argue that Bullied, Gresley's Technical Assistant, developed the template further with his pacific designs although much diluted.

 

The surviving images of "Great Northern" in its GNR livery also show us what a truly beautiful creation in steel and copper had been created over the months leading up to 22nd April. A tribute to its designer, his team and the people that built her.

 

Sadly I do not have a model of "Great Northern" in GNR livery but I do have one of the locomotive in A1/1 form. Perhaps someone does have an original A1 and can add a picture of this to the thread?

 

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B