Twilight of the ‘a3s’

Although named in conjunction with a titled train and now considered to be the most famous steam locomotive in the world, Flying Scotsman was just one of the ‘Top Shed’ fleet of ‘A3’ Pacifics when recorded on 5 August 1962 heading through Arlesey from the Biggleswade direction, with 37 miles remaining to journey’s end at King’s Cross. Brand new from Doncaster Works on 24 February 1923 as an ‘A1’ and rebuilt in ‘A3’ format in late 1946, with release on the following 4 January, this 4-6-2 is recorded in its final form, so neatly represents its guise when timed by B J Holliday a few weeks later with driver Willers and fireman Totman at the helm. A general overhaul of December 1958/January 1959 saw No 60103 Flying Scotsman gain a double chimney, while trough or German-type smoke deflectors were added during a casual/light repair of November/December 1961. Retired by BR on 15 January 1963, Alan Pegler was to be the new owner, and four owners and 60 years later Flying Scotsman is now part of the National Collection.

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There is hopefully not a steam enthusiast in the UK today who is not aware that Flying Scotsman celebrated its centenary this year. Surprisingly, in the performance arena this much celebrated engine was a ‘shy animal’, in the post-war era at any rate. One notable exception was right at the end of its career when B J Holliday had the honour of timing this Gresley ‘A3’ Pacific from Peterborough to London (King’s Cross). To use an ‘Allenism’ after the famous performance author Cecil J Allen, the ‘officiating genius’ was Charles Willers. Although not having the stellar reputation of either Bill Hoole or Ted Hailstone in the realm of performance, there were a number of good runs recorded behind this driver and his effort with No 60103 Flying Scotsman certainly provided ample proof of a first class engineman.

After a measured start over the nine miles or so to Connington with a 10-vehicle consist of 340 tons tare/360 tons gross, a number of signal checks were then encountered as far as St Neots, about 15¾ miles south of Connington and 51¾ miles from King’s Cross. After this point there were no half-measures from driver Willers, who was very ably assisted by fireman Totman. Here Flying Scotsman accelerated from 25mph to 82mph at Biggleswade, despite there being a gradually adverse tendency on this section. From Tempsford to Biggleswade this was worth around 1,200edhp/1,890ihp.

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