Earl of Berkeley

Looking at Hornby's A3s, one variant that they haven't covered is the small wing-type smoke deflectors fitted to four examples in 1959 as an early attempt to catch drifting smoke from the newly fitted double chimneys. 60048 Doncaster, 60055 Woolwinder, 60061 Pretty Polly and 60112 St. Simon were so fitted. Unfortunately, the small deflectors proved ineffective, so BR instead adopted the large German-style Witte deflectors from 1960 onwards. 60048, 60061 and 60112 duly swapped their small deflectors for the German ones in 1961/62, but 60055, being an early withdrawal in 1961, retained her small deflectors until the end. Hornby have never covered this particular variant of the A3. While only four examples can represented in this form, they would provide some variety and would be handy for anyone modelling the East Coast Main Line at the start of the 1960's.

6203 Princess Margaret Rose at Crewe in 1963, fresh from cosmetic restoration ready for display at Butlins' holiday camp in Pwllheli.

4489 Dominion of Canada at the head of the Coronation in the late 1930's.

6251 City of Nottingham brand new outside Crewe Works in 1944. Note that although the locomotive was built without streamlining, she was coupled to a streamlined tender. Suffice to say, that didn't last very long!

6220 Coronation stands at Euston after working the press run for the Coronation Scot on June 29th 1937. The press run certainly showed what the Coronations could do. On the outbound run to Crewe, Coronation set a new British speed record of 114mph down Whitmore Bank and on the return journey, she maintained an average speed of 79mph over the 158 miles between Crewe and Euston.

Flying Scotsman waits to depart King's Cross with the 1:15pm to Leeds on January 14th 1963. This was her final day in BR service and the 1:15pm was her final service train. The day after, she was officially withdrawn from service and handed over to Alan Peglar for preservation. Peglar was on the footplate for her final run and a huge crowd turned up to see her off into her new life. In fact, at King's Cross, there were even people standing on the tracks in those pre-health and safety days!

46238 City of Carlisle on the turntable at Camden shed in August 1962. 46238 was, appropriately, based at Carlisle Upperby shed at the time and had likely worked a train down to Euston earlier in the day and was now being turned ready for the return working north.

4487 Sea Eagle in the late 1930's.

60110 Robert the Devil at Hadley Wood with the Yorkshire Pullman in May 1961. New MK1 Pullmans make up the majority of the train and the A3 has a double chimney, which she received in 1959, but she hasn't yet been fitted with German-style smoke deflectors. These would be fitted in July 1961. A funny story about this engine is that she was once assigned to work a special train for a party of churchgoers. Apparently, someone at the running department decided to play a joke on them and allocate this engine, figuring that the name would wind them up. History doesn't record what the churchgoers thought of the joke. Either they took umbrage or they had a sense of humour and took it in good stride.

35024 East Asiatic Company departing Waterloo with a Bournemouth express in 1949. Note that while the Spam Can wears BR livery, the first two coaches are still in Southern green, showing the transitional state of the railways at the time. The railways had been nationalised the previous year, but applying the new state-owned brand took some time. Incidentally, this photo may have been the inspiration for Hornby and Graham Farish's models of 35024 in this livery.

6017 King Edward IV speeds through Accocks Green & South Yardley with a Paddington-Birkenhead express in 1959. The platform where the photographer was standing is now where the station car park resides.

34036 Westward Ho departing Padstow with the Atlantic Coast Express in 1959.

For a time in 1997, HST power car No. 43028 received this variation of Intercity Swallow livery, featuring a red cab. I'm not sure what the thinking behind the livery was, but it didn't seem to last long. At the time, the power car was one of a number allocated to Longsight depot for working Euston-Holyhead services, and is seen here working one such service on the North Wales Coast at Ffynnongroew.

46244 King George VI backs down onto The Caledonian at Euston on a wet day in 1960.

46138 The London Irish Rifleman comes off the Britannia Bridge with a Euston-Holyhead express in the early 1960's.

6001 King Edward VII passes the site of today's Trinity Way Midland Metro stop in West Bromwich with the 11:45 Birkenhead to Paddington express in September 1958.