MAKING PLANS FOR ‘NIGEL’ AT THE NRM

There’s still no date for completion of

Sir Nigel Gresley’s overhaul (SR509) – but it does at least look like the engine will soon no longer be ‘off limits’.

Cocooning the ‘A4’ in the National Railway Museum’s workshops seemed like a perfect arrangement when it began five years ago – but that was before coronavirus; although the museum itself is now open, in early September that was not yet true of its engineering facility. The Sir Nigel Gresley Trust has had no access to its LNER 4-6-2 since March.

“As a national museum, our immediate priority has been re-opening our site to visitors and essential staff in a way that guaranteed everyone’s safety” Sarah Price, the head of Locomotion who is also in charge of the workshops both at Shildon and York, responded when we asked for a report on ‘progress’.

Reopening such non-public facilities is, she said, “the next phase”.

“We are now working with the Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Trust volunteers to ensure measures are in place to provide a safe working environment. We anticipate the overhaul will be able to resume in the Workshop by mid-September.”

Unsurprisingly, trust chairman Nigel Wilson describes his team as “very happy that there’s been progress”.

The expectation now, he says, is for “a meeting in mid-September to discuss practical aspects, and to be back at work shortly thereafter.”

In one sense things are already tantalisingly close: before lockdown No. 60007 was already in the process of being reassembled. However, Nigel cautions: “Until we have that meeting we can’t assess the impact on timescales.”