BR 4-6-2 Duke Of Gloucester

Beschrijving:

The aftermath of the disastrous crash at Harrow & Wealdstone in 1952 left a gap in the ranks of 'Pacific' type steam locomotives operated by the London Midland Region of British Railways. ‘Duke of Gloucester’ was designed by Robert A. Riddles who took the opportunity to design a new locomotive based on his earlier Standard 'Britannia' Class 7 4-6-2.

The new locomotive was the prototype BR Standard Class 8, fitted with three sets of British Caprotti valve gear and, unlike all other BR Standard locomotives, was equipped with three cylinders. Designed at Derby and built at the British Railways Crewe Works the prototype locomotive entered traffic on the 31st May 1954 and was named the 'Duke of Gloucester'.

The locomotive was regarded as a failure by its crews due to its poor steaming ability and heavy coal consumption. Unfortunately there were fundamental design errors and undetected deviations from the original design during construction which contributed to the disappointing performance of the locomotive.

The announcement of the Modernisation Plan in 1955 meant that no more of the class was constructed and 71000 remained unique. Throughout its short eight year career the locomotive worked in and out of London Euston on the Anglo Scottish Express services. The ‘Duke’ then served the Irish Mail to Holyhead, and finally spent time on the undemanding and more mundane duties between Crewe and Holyhead.

Withdrawn from shed 5A Crewe North on the 24th November 1962 the ‘Duke of Gloucester’ was selected for the National Collection, but it was decided that only the cylinders were of interest and two were removed to become museum exhibits, before the locomotive was eventually sold for scrap in 1967. After languishing in the scrapyard for several years the locomotive was purchased by a group of enthusiasts for preservation in 1974.

Following 12 years of restoration locomotive No. 71000 was officially re-commissioned and re-named on the 11th November 1986 by HRH Duke of Gloucester and eventually returned to the main line in 1990.

During restoration the design and construction errors were discovered and rectified, resulting in a vastly improved performance. After a second overhaul, completed in 2004, locomotive No. 71000 returned to main line service with The East Lancashire Railway. The ‘Duke of Gloucester’ is now currently on display at the Crewe Heritage Centre awaiting its third overhaul.

The locomotive represented here shows the ‘Duke of Gloucester’ as it was in 1960.