Continuing his survey of the ‘Big Four’ railways, Trevor Jones picks out some ‘missing links’ of the LNER and constituents that could be modelled in ‘OO’ gauge.
THE LONDON AND NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY (LNER) was renowned for its streamlined ‘Pacifics’ and elegant steam locomotives, largely designed by Sir Nigel Gresley. The ‘Big Four' era of the LNER has been well-served by manufacturers in 'OO' gauge, with almost all of the significant Gresley, Thompson and Peppercorn designs available. For locomotives built before 1923 (and the perennially cash-strapped LNER had a lot of them), it is a rather different story.
On grouping the LNER absorbed 7,700 locomotives from the Great Northern Railway (GNR), North Eastern Railway (NER), Great Eastern Railway (GER), Great Central Railway (GCR), North British Railway (NBR) and Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) as well as three smaller companies. In this part we have also included the Metropolitan Railway and the London Underground.
Above: Preserved LNER ‘K4’ 2-6-0 3442 The Great Marquess skirts Loch Eilt on the West Highland Mallaig Extension whilst hauling a Mallaig to Fort William steam train in the late 1980s. Trevor Jones.
Looking at potential models from the GNR, the obvious gap is Gr…
