PEPPERCORN ‘A2’ No. 60532 Blue Peter has returned to steam for the first time in 22 years.
Last steamed at the end of 2002 at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, where it had been based following the expiry of its main line ‘ticket’ the previous year, the 1948-built ‘Pacific’ moved under its own power for the first time in over two decades at Locomotive Services Group’s base at Crewe on March 14. For the first time in its history, Blue Peter has been outshopped in BR express passenger blue livery, a colour scheme that was never applied to the original ‘A2s’ as the 4‐6‐2s were classed as mixed traffic locomotives by BR and lined blue was only reserved for express passenger types.
The colour scheme matches that applied to LSG’s ex-Gresley corridor tender water carrier, which is set to run behind both Blue Peter and ‘A4’ No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley – also painted BR blue – on selected main line tours. However, Royal Scot Locomotive & General Trust trustee Peter Greenwood told Steam Railway the decision to paint No. 60532 in BR blue “was taken quite early on in the overhaul, long before we hired 60007, and the idea to use the water carrier was only quite a recent thought.”
Blue Peter has received a new middle cylinder, a new copper firebox, and air-braking during its extensive overhaul. Greenwood added: “The boiler was tired. It needed a lot of ‘surgery’ in other areas also. This, added to the need for a new middle cylinder, was the reason it stood inactive for so long before it came to us. “We also had to build a totally new tender tank, built by our own boiler shop team. There was some pressure put upon us to make a corridor tender tank, but in the end, we decided to replicate the original. It’s the sole
