1925-2023
‘Top Shed’ man who created Gresley’s ‘Super Pacifics’.
Peter Townend, the King’s Cross shedmaster who got the very best out of Gresley’s East Coast ‘A3s’ in their final years by fitting them with Kylchap blastpipes, double chimneys and German-style smoke deflectors, died on October 18 at the grand age of 98.
While we have now lost one of our last remaining links with main line steam, were have the good fortune to have his life story in print, and his definitive Top Shed book describes the life and times of ‘34A’, the depot at the London end of the East Coast Main Line. It was overloaded with ‘Pacifics’ in the 1950s, and had a staff of over 1,000 footplate crew, cleaners, fitters, storemen, clerks and supervisors.
Its ‘Top Link’ drivers were legends. Until fairly recently, Peter was a regular guest on steam railtours, especially when his beloved ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado was in charge, and he also enjoyed rides on the footplate.
Peter was always happy to hold court, his pleasant, mild manner possibly a contrast to his former life at the top.
It seemed natural that South Yorkshireman Peter Norman Townend would follow his forebears and join the railway in 1941. After five years learning his trade as a premium apprentice under Arthur Peppercorn at ‘The Plant’, Peter impressed his peers and was given charge of Melton Constable shed at the age of just 23. He was also a manager at Yarmouth Beach, Bury St Edmunds, March, King’s Lynn, before transfers to Plaistow and Hatfield gave him a taste of busy suburban life.
He was at Boston in 1956 when he got his big break, beating 30 other applicants to become depot manager at King’s Cross, where he had responsibility at various times for the now preserved Nos. 60022 Mallard, 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley, 60008 Dwight D. Eisenhow
