Reality Check
Although the ‘Pacifics’ of the LNER are generally considered to be some of the best-looking locomotives ever built, there was one batch of locomotives that defied this rule. EVAN GREEN-HUGHES and ANDREW RODEN look into the history of the ‘A2/2s’ and ‘A2/3s’ which, while they looked ungainly, were an intelligent response to wartime pressures.
1941 WAS A BLACK YEAR for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). The perennially financiallystrapped company was struggling to cope with the demands placed upon it by the war effort and the consequent reduction in engineering standards. Worse still, that April had seen the death of Sir Nigel Gresley, the world-famous locomotive engineer, who had produced some of the best steam engines in the world for the East Coast Main Line.
He was succeeded as Chief Mechanical Engineer by Edward Thompson, a man of academic background who had studied mechanical sciences at Cambridge and who was the son-in-law of Sir Vincent Raven, formerly Chief Mechanical Engineer of the North Eastern Railway. Thompson had very different views to Gresley on a number of subjects, including mechanical arrangements and standardisation of parts, and this was to lead to great changes at Doncaster.
On his a…
