Locomotive labour of love

A LABOUR of love to restore a historic locomotive to help mark the 75th anniversary of Mallard becoming the world’s fastest steam engine has opened a treasure trove to rail fans.

The Dominion of Canada arrived at Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon after spending nearly 50 years on show in Montreal.

The A4 class engine, which spent 26 years racing between London and Edinburgh, was badly in need of a major overhaul.

As museum volunteers stripped back the 77- year-old engine as part of a major seven-month restoration project, they unearthed a time capsule from the 1960s.

Stashed down the side of the fireman’s seat they found a copy of the Daily Express dating from February 11, 1963, probably lodged there during a journey.

Other long-lost objects, such as the locomotive’s original cylinder cock label, were found as the grubby British Rail green paint was peeled back.

The restoration was carried out to prepare Dominion of Canada for a historic line-up of the six remaining A4 engines to mark the anniversary of Mallard reaching 125.88mph on July 3, 1938.

A damaged front piece was repaired and Ian Matthews, who has also worked on the Darlington-made locomotive Tornado, returned the engine back to its original garterblue colour. He used 55 litres of paint on the 94-tonne engine, using a three-inch and oneand- a-half-inch brush.

ANTHONY COULLS, senior curator of railway vehicles at Locomotion, said: “It sounds a great idea on paper to bring the six remaining A4s together for the anniversary.

“However, when you consider that Dominion was in Canada and fellow A4 Dwight D Eisenhower was in the US, it was a bit of a challenge.

“It cost about £200,000 to bring the two engines over and bringing them all together is not something that I ever thought I would see.

“The funny thing is that if you ask people to name three engines, they most likely will say Mallard, Rocket and Thomas.

“We have one of those on show in Shildon for this display. This will put Shildon on the map.”

He added: “The restoration proved to be fascinating for the volunteers at the museum.

“We found an old copy of the Daily Express and other historical items of interest when we carried out the work.”

Designer Sir Nigel Gresley dreamt up the A4s as a streamlined service to whisk passengers the length of the country. The engines’ design is thought to have been inspired by Bugatti sports cars. For many in Britain at the time, especially when Mallard broke the world record, they were signs of patriotic pride.

While Mallard is the most famous of the engine class, many others graced the London and North-Eastern Railway service.

Dominion of Canada was built in May 1937 and was originally to be named Buzzard.

Instead it was called Woodcock, before it was renamed Dominion of Canada in June 1937.

It is one of a number of A4 locomotives named after British colonies, such as Commonwealth of Australia and Empire of India.

The nameplate is tried out for size on the stripped-down Dominion of Canada locomotive at the National Railway Museum at Shildon during restoration work last year

British Rail scrapped them for diesels in the late-1960s and the engines were offered to their namesake countries.

Some nations, such as Canada and the US, took up the offer, while others, including South Africa and New Zealand, declined.

It seemed as if the A4s would be consigned to history and that they would never be seen together again, but then plans were drawn up to mark Mallard’s anniversary.

Firstly the engines, Dominion, Mallard, Eisenhower, Union of South Africa, Bittern and Sir Nigel Gresley, were reunited.

Part of the deal to bring Dominion of Canada and Dwight D Eisenhower back to the UK was that they would have cosmetic repairs carried out to leave them in a perfect condition.

Staff at the National Railway Museum, in York, repaired Dwight D Eisenhower.

The six engines were on show at York’s National Railway Museum last year as part of the anniversary events to showcase Mallard’s achievement. They are now appearing at Locomotion for The Great Goodbye display.

So popular are the engines that museum staff in Shildon expect there to be about 72,000 visitors, compared to the regular annual average of 200,000.

In fact, since the engines were first brought back together, there have been several serious offers to buy some of them. All bids, though, have been turned down.

This is expected to be the last time that all six of the A4s are together as they are to disperse at the end of the show.

The Great Goodbye runs until Sunday, from 9.30am to 5pm. Admission is free.