As a kid, I had a brief opportunity to visit the cab of this locomotive when it passed through Hartford, CT on a US Tour back in 1969. Glad to see she's still out there polishing the rails and looking great.
|
Insofar as this locomotive seems most famous, and arguably ran in its heyday, as LNER 4472, I was a bit taken aback to see it bearing the British Rail number (60103).
|
Just wondering, why has it been renumbered and what's with the smoke deflectors?
|
LNER ‘Flying Scotsman’ was an 4-6-2 "Pacific" locomotive completed in February 1923 in Doncaster Works as the third of 51 Class A1 locomotives built to a design by Nigel Gresley.
In 1928, Gresley began to modify the A1 locomotives into an improved version, the Class A3. Flying Scotsman emerged as an A3 on 4 January 1947. Its old 180 psi boiler was replaced with a 225 psi version with the long "banjo" dome of the type it carries today, and was fitted with more efficient valves and cylinders. In 1959, she was fitted with a double Kylchap chimney to improve performance and economy, but it caused soft exhaust and smoke drift that tended to obscure the driver's forward vision; the remedy was found in the German-type smoke deflectors fitted by the end of 1961.
In 1946, the locomotive was renumbered twice by Gresley's successor Edward Thompson, who devised a comprehensive renumbering scheme for the LNER.
4472 was initially assigned number 502 in January, but an amendment to the system led to its renumbering of 103 four months later. Following the nationalisation of Britain's railways on 1 January 1948, almost all of the LNER locomotive numbers were increased by 60000, and 103 became 60103 that December.
|
John, thanks for the update / explanation. FWIW--I know, maybe not much!--Wikipedia says this locomotive had FIVE different numbers, and was 4472 from February 1924 to January 1946 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A3_4472_Flying_Scotsman). Seems like many preserved but active locomotives get put into different variants of themselves over time, maybe to spur interest. Wiki has a 2012 photo of this one as 502, which it says was used from January to May 1946.
|
|