Indian summer A4 warms up for auction appearance

ONE of the Gresley A4 Pacifics that enjoyed an Indian summer working the three-hour Glasgow to Aberdeen expresses will be in the limelight in Great Northern’s auction on April 3-13. It is No. 60027 Merlin, the smokebox numberplate from which will be a star feature in the online sale.

Built at Doncaster in March 1937 (works No. 1851), No. 60027 was a Scottish-based member of the class throughout its 28 years in service, which included not only the Glasgow-Aberdeen expresses late in its life, but also earlier the non-stop Edinburgh-London ‘Elizabethan’, which it was able to operate due to a corridor tender that allowed a crew exchange en route without stopping. The Pacific was withdrawn from the Edinburgh shed of St Margaret’s (64A) in September 1965.

Jubilee nameplates have been a mainstay of railwayana auctions for many years and Great Northern will continue that tradition with Tobago from No. 45635, a November 1934 Crewe-built 4-6-0 that was withdrawn from Carlisle Kingmoor (12A) in September 1964.

Worksplates in the auction include a 1949 Doncaster plate (works

No. 2054) from Peppercorn A1

No. 60160 Auld Reekie, the Scottish nickname for Edinburgh. This was another Pacific shedded north of the border for its entire operational life, and it was withdrawn in December 1963 when also allocated to St Margaret’s.

From an altogether more unassuming locomotive, but one which recorded a little piece of railway history, is an LNER Darlington 1914 worksplate from J72 class 0-6-0 No. 68698. On December 27, 1957, it hauled the last train on the Easingwold Railway in the Vale of York prior to its total closure. Passenger services had ceased in November 1948, but freight survived until that last working by

No. 68698, which was to survive for nearly another four years until being withdrawn from West Hartlepool (51C) October 1961.

The Easingwold Railway was a 2½-mile branch line running from the ECML station of Alne to the market town of Easingwold that opened in July 1891 and was privately owned through its 66 years in operation. Another train of note in its final year was an RCTS enthusiasts’ special headed by J71 class 0-6-0T No. 68246 on June 23, of which Great Northern boss Dave Robinson said: “There will be old boys who will have travelled on that train and doubtless remember being carried in those open wagons.”