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 BOOM TIME FOR BITTERN
 CHELTENHAM 28 NOVEMBER 2009
GLOUCESTER 5 DECEMBER 2009
 
 


 
   On Saturday 28 November 2009 Gloucestershire rail enthusiasts were treated to the sight of  ex LNER Class A4 Pacific 60019 "Bittern" passing through Cheltenham en route to Worcester from London only for the same locomotive to visit Wales via Gloucester a week later on Saturday 5 December 2009 - a particularly busy day at Gloucester station as the Severn Tunnel was closed for engineering work.  Both trains were operated by Steam Dreams and marketed as "The Cathedrals Express."
 
 


On Saturday 28 November 2009 Gloucestershire rail enthusiasts were treated to the sight of  ex LNER Class A4 Pacific 60019 "Bittern" passing through Cheltenham en route to Worcester from London only for the same locomotive to visit Wales via Gloucester a week later on Saturday 5 December 2009 - a particularly busy day at Gloucester station as the Severn Tunnel was closed for engineering work.  Both trains were operated by Steam Dreams and marketed as "The Cathedrals Express."

The first seven colour photographs in this feature were taken at Cheltenham - the scene of a visit from 70013 "Oliver Cromwell" on 16 July 2009 - and the rest at Gloucester unless otherwise stated.


Built for the London North Eastern Railway in 1937 as Doncaster Works number 1866, "Bittern" was originally numbered 4464 but renumbered 19 on 16 August 1946 under that year's LNER renumbering scheme. After nationalisation in 1948, BR added 60000 to its number so it became 60019  on 10 October 1948. One of a 35 strong class designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and including the 126 mph World steam speed record holder 4468 "Mallard", 60019 "Bittern" is one of six A4s to survive into preservation.


Built for the London North Eastern Railway in 1937 as Doncaster Works number 1866, "Bittern" was originally numbered 4464 but renumbered 19 on 16 August 1946 under that year's LNER renumbering scheme. After nationalisation in 1948, BR added 60000 to its number so it became 60019  on 10 October 1948. One of a 35 strong class designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and including the 126 mph World steam speed record holder 4468 "Mallard", 60019 "Bittern" is one of six A4s to survive into preservation.



Like the other members of her class, "Bittern" has worn many liveries throughout her career. When released to traffic on 18 December 1937, the then 4464 was wearing the standard LNER A4 Pacific locomotive garter blue livery in which 4468 "Mallard" is now preserved at the National Railway Museum in York.


Like the other members of her class, "Bittern" has worn many liveries throughout her career. When released to traffic on 18 December 1937, the then 4464 was wearing the standard LNER A4 Pacific locomotive garter blue livery in which 4468 "Mallard" is now preserved at the National Railway Museum in York. 

14 November 1941 saw her repainted into wartime black with LNER markings on the tender while on 22 May 1943 the tender lettering was shortened to just NE to confuse any lineside German spies. 19 "Bittern" remained in black until 7 March 1947 when she served out the last few months before Nationalisation in LNER post-war garter blue with extra red/white lining. 

British Railways dark blue with black and white lining was applied next on 28 July 1950 and finally 12 February 1952 saw 60019 "Bittern" painted in the black and orange lined Brunswick Green that she wore to Gloucestershire in 2009.  This differed from other A4s not once based at Darlington in having the firebox boiler band lined out along eith the others rather than just being plain green.

Around 1966 the "Bittern" nameplate was also seen with a red background in line with some other A4s although originally and currently this background is black. Some A4s also had their shed name marked on the right-hand (looking from the front) buffer.60019 "Bittern" was marked with 'Gateshead' circa 1949 and 'Ferryhill' later in the 1960s although in 2009 she wore the simple 52A shedplate of Gateshead with an SC denoting a Self Cleaning smokebox.



Like the most other A4s, 4464 "Bittern" was fitted with aerofoil section side valances and a single chimney from new. The valances - designed by then LNER man Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid - were removed during an overhaul 22 September – 14 November 1941 to make wartime maintenance easier when high speed running was no longer a priority.


Like the most other A4s, 4464 "Bittern" was fitted with aerofoil section side valances and a single chimney from new. The valances - designed by then LNER man Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid - were removed during an overhaul 22 September – 14 November 1941 to make wartime maintenance easier when high speed running was no longer a priority. 

A full width bogie dust shield was fitted in 1950, a double chimney with Kylchap double blastpipe on 6 September 1957, a British Railways Automatic Warning System (AWS)  on 13 December 1958 and a speed indicator on 6 September 1960.

"Bittern" has had just one tender throughout her career, a non-corridor design numbered 5638. However, this has recently been rebuilt as a corridor version to allow extra flexibility of operation and since 1937 "Bittern" has also worked with 14 different boilers:

BOILER NUMBER DATE ORIGIN
9020 ...................................  New
9025 23 January 1941  4469 "Sir Ralph Wedgewood", later destroyed at York in the Luftwaffe's "Baedecker" raid of 29 April 1941.
9018 22 May 1943 4462 "William Whitelaw"
8952 14 October 1948 Spare
8905 28 July 1950 60011"Dominion of India"
29317 12 February 1952 New build boiler
29298 12 June 1953 60020 "Guillemot"
29279 30 November 1954 60009 "Union of South Africa"
29320 25 May 1956 60020 "Guillemot"
29315 6 September 1957 60022 "Mallard"
29319 13 December  1958 60009 "Union of South Africa"
29355 16 March 1960 New build boiler
27971 27 April 1962 60017 "Silver Fox"
29332 24 March 1965 Spare


Initially 4464 "Bittern" was based at Heaton (HTN, later 52B) depot in Newcastle and hauled the Flying Scotsman service  between London King's Cross and Newcastle.


 

Initially 4464 "Bittern" was based at Heaton (HTN, later 52B) depot in Newcastle and hauled the Flying Scotsman service  between London King's Cross and Newcastle. 

Early in her career, 4464 suffered some collision damage, necessitating a general overhaul at Doncaster from 3–4 January 1938 after which "Bittern" was transferred to Gateshead on 28 March 28 1943. 

As the Second World War continued A4 locomotives hauled heavy freight trains -  a task that the locomotives had not been built for. Such work and poor maintenance conditions left Sir Nigel Gresley's "streaks" in a poor state by 1945 although both engineering and operational conditions improved after Nationalisation with a return to high speed services such as the Talisman and Elizabethan expresses from Kings Cross to Edinburgh. 

By the end of the 1950s however new diesel locomotives were replacing East Coast steam and Bittern was transferred to Edinburgh St Margarets depot on 28 October 1963 before moving again to Aberdeen Ferryhill on 10 November 1963 to operate trains between Edinburgh and Glasgow. This service only lasted three years and 60019 "Bittern" was the last A4 to haul a train from Glasgow to Edinburgh on 3 September 1966 - as pictured here in monochrome - after a career of less than 30 years.



60019 at Glasgow Buchanan Street station ( above ) on 3 September 1966 and again on the same day at Aberdeen.  Note the train reporting number 605 and the class and Ferryhill depot painted on the bufferbeam below the 61B - Aberdeen Ferryhill - smokebox plate. Notice too the photographer who has climbed up a signal gantry at Glasgow before the British Transport "Polis" could stop him.  Health and Safety would not be invented for several decades to come!


60019 at Glasgow Buchanan Street station ( above ) on 3 September 1966 and again on the same day at Aberdeen.  Note the train reporting number 605 and the class and Ferryhill depot painted on the bufferbeam below the 61B - Aberdeen Ferryhill - smokebox plate. Notice too the photographer who has climbed up a signal gantry at Glasgow before the British Transport "Polis" could stop him.  Health and Safety would not be invented for several decades to come!




By 1966, 60019 "Bittern" was suffering from badly cracked frames which had only been lightly repaired by British Railways with the end of steam in sight. This in turn affected her life in preservation and only in the 21st Century have such fundamental repairs been completed to allow a return to main line running.


By 1966, 60019 "Bittern" was suffering from badly cracked frames which had only been lightly repaired by British Railways with the end of steam in sight. This in turn affected her life in preservation and only in the 21st Century have such fundamental repairs been completed to allow a return to main line running.

60019 "Bittern" was withdrawn from British Railways traffic on 5 September 1966 and was bought by Geoff Dury on 12 September 1966, making 60019 the first of its A4 to be privately preserved. The 4-6-2 initially operated from York depot - the site of today's National Railway Museum - on various steam charters, but the cracked frames and other symptoms of 60019's long career soon spelt an end to her mainline appearances.  As a result, Geoff Drury bought non-streamlined LNER Peppercorn Class A2 Pacific 60532 "Blue Peter" from British Railways in 1968.

Both ex LNER 4-6-2s were moved to the now-closed Dinting Railway Centre near Glossop in north Derbyshire and in 1987 the Drury family - which still own 60532 "Blue Peter" - loaned them to the North East Locomotive Preservation Group.

While 60532 "Blue Peter" was moved to the Imperial Chemical Industries works at Wilton, Redcar and Cleveland and restore to mainline running from December 1991, 60019"Bittern" was merely cosmetically restored to represent long-scrapped sister 2509 "Silver Link"



60019"Bittern" disguised as 2509 "Silver Link"was displayed at the National Railway Museum, York and on 3 July 1988 was moved outside next to 4468 "Mallard", which had just worked a charter train up from Doncaster, and 4498 "Sir Nigel Gresley", which was used to make steam appear to come from"Silver Link". Sadly 60009 "Union of South Africa", was unable to attend.


60019"Bittern" disguised as 2509 "Silver Link"was displayed at the National Railway Museum, York and on 3 July 1988 was moved outside next to 4468 "Mallard", which had just worked a charter train up from Doncaster, and 4498 "Sir Nigel Gresley", which was used to make steam appear to come from"Silver Link". Sadly 60009 "Union of South Africa", was unable to attend. 


In 1995, 60019 "Bittern" disguised as 2509 "Silver Link" was moved to the Great Central Railway in Loughborough to undergo restoration to working order, but this reached only a partial stage of dismantling.  It was pictured ( above ) on 1 May 1997 at Loughborough in the company of English Electric Class 20 D8089 and LNER B1 4-6-0 1264 - designed by Gresley's successor Thompson who in turn was the antecedent of A.H. Peppercorn who designed the A1 4-6-2s.


In 1995, 60019 "Bittern" disguised as 2509 "Silver Link" was moved to the Great Central Railway in Loughborough to undergo restoration to working order, but this reached only a partial stage of dismantling.  It was pictured ( above ) on 1 May 1997 at Loughborough in the company of English Electric Class 20 D8089 and LNER B1 4-6-0 1264 - designed by Gresley's successor Thompson who in turn was the antecedent of A.H. Peppercorn who designed the A1 4-6-2s.

However, after the death of Geoff Drury, 60019 "Bittern" was bought by Jeremy Hosking and moved to the Mid-Hants Railway in January 2001 for full restoration and on 19 May 2007 60019 was steamed for the first time since the 1970s.

Once again in authentic British Railways lined green livery, "Bittern" hauled her first service train at 1300 on 7 July 2007  - taking the Mid Hant's rake of dining coaches from Alresford to Altonduring the Watercress Line's 'End of Southern Steam Gala'.   

Since then 60019 has been 'run in' and has been used on normal services, Santa specials and on the 21, 22 and 23 March 2008 ran as 'Spencer' from the Thomas The Tank Engine stories during the Watercress Line's 'Day out with Thomas'.



"Bittern" was then sent to Southall Depot west of Paddington where she was configured to run with her water tender and support coach, both originally used with 4472 "Flying Scotsman". After that, she completed brake and speed tests on a run to Bristol and soon after made her official return to mainline working on Saturday 1 December 2007 on a charter fromLondon Kings Cross to York and since then has hauled several more rail tours around the country. The water tender was eventually not certified for main line running and now resides on the Watercress Line at Ropley MPD.


"Bittern" was then sent to Southall Depot west of Paddington where she was configured to run with her water tender and support coach, both originally used with 4472 "Flying Scotsman". After that, she completed brake and speed tests on a run to Bristol and soon after made her official return to mainline working on Saturday 1 December 2007 on a charter fromLondon Kings Cross to York and since then has hauled several more rail tours around the country. The water tender was eventually not certified for main line running and now resides on the Watercress Line at Ropley MPD.

On the weekend of 5 July 2008 however, Bittern joined her three sisters for the first time ever on display at the National Railway Museum in York on the anniversary of sister Mallard's run.


On 25 July 2009 60019 "Bittern" made a 188-mile test run from King's Cross to York non-stop using a second tender to avoid the need to stop en route to take on water and change crews.  On this journey the locomotive carried a headboard proclaiming "The  Brighton Belle" to publicise the launch of the restoration project by the 5BEL Trust.



On 25 July 2009 60019 "Bittern" made a 188-mile test run from King's Cross to York non-stop using a second tender to avoid the need to stop en route to take on water and change crews.  On this journey the locomotive carried a headboard proclaiming "The  Brighton Belle" to publicise the launch of the restoration project by the 5BEL Trust.

With the first tender having a water capacity of 5,000 gallons and coal, and the second tender only used for carrying an extra 9,000 gallons of water, it was thought that this would give 60019 "Bittern" a range of about 250 miles although occasional stops are desirable in any case, for mechanical checks and coal redistribution in the tender and firebox.

A non-stop run on the East Coast Main Line had not been achieved since the 1968 Kings Cross to Edinburgh run by 4472 "Flying Scotsman", also with a second tender.  In June 2009, as part of a race with a car and a motorcycle organised by BBC TV's "Top Gear", 60163 "Tornado" had run from Kings Cross to Edinburgh with water - but no station - stops: also a first since 4472 in 1968.



On both 2009 visits to Gloucestershire, 60019 "Bittern" was accompanied by support coach 17103 "Butaurus", a dual braked 36 tonne Mark 1 Corridor Brake First built at Swindon in 1961 as part of Lot 30668 and originally numbered 14013.  Also owned by Jeremy Hosking and based at Southall, 17103 carries Pullman livery, runs on Commonwealth bogies and has an ETH index of 2.  Support coaches provide workshop and parts storage facilities for their steam locomotives as well as seating, sleeping quarters and catering facilities for operating personnel.


On both 2009 visits to Gloucestershire, 60019 "Bittern" was accompanied by support coach 17103 "Butaurus", a dual braked 36 tonne Mark 1 Corridor Brake First built at Swindon in 1961 as part of Lot 30668 and originally numbered 14013.  Also owned by Jeremy Hosking and based at Southall, 17103 carries Pullman livery, runs on Commonwealth bogies and has an ETH index of 2.  Support coaches provide workshop and parts storage facilities for their steam locomotives as well as seating, sleeping quarters and catering facilities for operating personnel.


Sir Nigel Gresley introduced the A4 Class in 1935 to haul the Silver Jubilee high-speed streamlined train - named in celebration of the 25 year reign of King George V - between London Kings Cross and Newcastle


Sir Nigel Gresley introduced the A4 Class in 1935 to haul the Silver Jubilee high-speed streamlined train - named in celebration of the 25 year reign of King George V - between London Kings Cross and Newcastle.

During a visit to Germany in 1933, Gresley had been inspired by the high-speed, streamlined "Flying Hamburger" diesel multiple unit trains, which the LNER had considered purchasing. However, the diesel units of the time did not have the desired passenger carrying capacity and the capital investment in the new technology was prohibitive. Gresley was sure that steam could do the job equally well and with a decent fare-paying load behind the locomotive.

Following trials in 1935 with one of Gresley's A3 Pacifics 2750 "Papyrus", which recorded a new maximum of 108 mph and completed the London-Newcastle journey in under four hours, the LNER authorised Gresley to produce a streamlined development of the A3. Initially four locomotives were built, all with the word 'silver' as part of their names, the first being 2509 "Silver Link"  followed by 2510 "Quicksilver", 2511 "Silver King" and 2512 "Silver Fox". During a press run to publicise the service 2509 twice achieved a speed of 112.5 mph, breaking the British record and sustained an average of 100 mph over a distance of 43 miles

Following the commercial success of the Silver Jubilee train, other streamlined services were introduced: the Coronation (London-Edinburgh, July 1937) and the West Riding Limited (Bradford & Leeds-London & return, November 1937) for which more A4s were specially built. In August 1936 the Silver Jubilee train on the descent of Stoke Bank headed by 2512 "Silver Fox" achieved a maximum of 113 mph, then the highest speed ever attained in Britain with an ordinary passenger train.

Gresley's A4 design included internal streamlining to the steam circuit, higher boiler pressure and the extension of the firebox to form a combustion chamber -  all contributing to a more efficient locomotive than the A3 that used less coal and water. A further improvement to the design was the fitting of a Kylchap double-chimney first introduced on 4468 "Mallard", built in March 1938. This device improved the free-steaming capabilities of the locomotives further, and the final three locomotives of the class - 4901 "Capercaillie"4902 "Seagull", and 4903 "Peregrine" were fitted with the Kylchap exhaust from new; and eventually the rest of the class acquired it in the late 1950s.

The A4 class of locomotive was also noted for its streamlined casing, which not only improved its aerodynamics, thus increasing its speed capabilities, but also created an updraught to lift smoke away from the driver's vision. The distinctive design also made it a particularly attractive subject for artists, photographers and film-makers. 



Gresley's A4 design included internal streamlining to the steam circuit, higher boiler pressure and the extension of the firebox to form a combustion chamber -  all contributing to a more efficient locomotive than the A3 that used less coal and water. A further improvement to the design was the fitting of a Kylchap double-chimney first introduced on 4468 "Mallard", built in March 1938. This device improved the free-steaming capabilities of the locomotives further, and the final three locomotives of the class - 4901 "Capercaillie"4902 "Seagull", and 4903 "Peregrine" were fitted with the Kylchap exhaust from new; and eventually the rest of the class acquired it in the late 1950s.