A photograph of No. 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley which was the 100th Gresley Pacific built by the Great Northern Railway/London and North Eastern Railway.
Photograph courtesy of Joyce Chesney.
Information taken from The Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Trust Ltd., website.
Mill Lane School was at the bottom of Dovecot Street and adjacent to the Edinbrough Waverley and London Kings Cross LNER main railway line. There was a daily 8.45 train, with Pullman carriages, from Stockton station that went past the school boundary fence every morning, known then to us as, “The quarter to niner”. The engines towing the train were invariably always A4 Pacific “Streaks”, Sometimes an A2 or A3 class, but A4s were everyone’s favourite, with their most distinctive instantly recognisable whistle. The Sir Nigel Gresley was just one of the many Streaks that we “copped” every morning, Mallard 60022, Quicksilver 60015, Domonion of Canada 60010, and my favourite Bittern 60019 to name but a few. British engineering at its pinnacle and finest, but my goodness how Stckton Station, once so busy and historically famous, now stands motionless and that is such a shame.
Magnificent streaker!
I grew up in Stockton and remember this locomotive going over Fusick Bridge. Sorry if I have spelt that wrongly. I am now 84 and live in Epsom.
Glad to see you are still around Roy at 84 & going strong, we saw this train in Stockton Station from the bridge like many of the other s.treakers
Passing through Taunton today on to the Minehead/Bishops Lydeard line.
Lovely to see a post from Joyce. I remember her from when I worked in both the old and new Stockton Library. Irene Rylander (Metcalfe)
Often used to be in Stockton station around 8 30 on a morning with passengers boarding to go to London Kings Cross. I used to see it from my school bus on my way to St John’s. Circa 1952 to 1954.