Peter Townend 1925-2023
The man who gave Gresley Pacifics a new lease of life.
TO TAKE control of the East Coast Main Line’s premier motive power depot at the age of 30 requires an exceptional level of ability. To play a vital role in the development of Gresley Pacifics too confirms Peter Townend as one of the most influential steam figures in postwar Britain.
Born on August 13, 1925 and raised in Doncaster, Peter had been taken as a 10-year-old to witness the inaugural run of ‘A4’ No. 2509 Silver Link on the ‘Silver Jubilee’ in September 1935 and quickly became an enthusiast, devouring the pages of The Railway Magazine in his local library every month.
“It was the only way we could find out what was happening on the LNER and other railways in those days,” he said.
After learning his trade as a premium apprentice in the white heat of Doncaster Works during the Second World War, he progressed to relief and managerial roles at various sheds, including Melton Constable, Yarmouth Beach, Bury St Edmunds, March, King’s Lynn, Plaistow, Hatfield, Boston and Hitchin. In those posts, he found himself having to give orders to men old enough to be his grandfather, but it proved the perfect preparation for the plum job he was to land in 1956 as shedmaster at King’s Cross.
In the half-decade he spent at ‘Top Shed’, he had around 50 Pacifics under his wing, 19 of which were ‘A4s’. But Peter did not merely run the depot, he entered the history books as the man whose comparison trials did much to lead to the mass-fitting of ‘A4s’ and ‘A3s’ with double chimneys, thereby giving them a new lease of life in the face of the diesel onslaught. He was also responsible for the fitting of German smoke deflectors to the majority of ‘A3s’, having travelled to Cologne at his own expense to observe the devices in use there.
Unlike many other ECML shedmasters, he did not dispense with his team of cleaners as a cost-saving measure either, ensuring that King’s Cross’s immaculatelygroomed steeds were almost invariably the smartest on the line.
Peter left the ‘Cross in
1961 and retired from the rail industry 23 years later, but he remained in close touch with the steam heritage movement, becoming vice-president of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the Gresley Society and the Engine Shed Society. He advised the trust on the construction of Tornado and the National Railway Museum on the restoration of Flying Scotsman, and continued to give of his expertise freely to engineers and operators well into his 90s.
Having moved to the
Devon resort of Torquay in his retirement, he passed away on October 18, less than two years from his 100th birthday, but his remarkable legacy lives on in his books, the best- known of which are ‘Top Shed’ and ‘East Coast Pacifics at Work’.