arizonachris wrote:I like it and will get it. Looks like it could be a cousin to ........the Tornado. I guess I'll find out.
Not a million miles out there, Chris - On the East coast main line from London to York, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, Nigel Gresley's first Pacific design was the A1/10 in 1923 - later rebuilt and reclassified A3 with higher pressure boiler. Flying Scotsman was the third of its type and the first loco to be built by the then-new LNER for crack express services. Flying Scotsman was actually named after a train service, the 10.00am from Kings Cross to Edinburgh. His secondary design based upon the boiler proportions of the A3 but scaled down slightly and with smaller drivers for mixed traffic became the V2 class Prairie which was probably his most successful design from new. When he died his assistant Edward Thompson was promoted to CME and decided that the remainder of the production run of V2 locos should be built as Pacifics too - but retaining the same length of valve motion as the smaller prairies, leaving the cylinders in a slightly strange looking location behind the front bogie and in front of the front drivers. this became the class A2/1. Next off, he produced his own design (A2/3) based upon these larger boiler proportions but retaining with the smaller 6'2" driving wheel arrangement for secondary services, and the slightly strange look. When he retired, his successor (Arthur Peppercorn) moved the cylinder location forward to a more conventional location and this locomotive was the A2 class. None survived, Tornado is a replica. But she does share a very close lineage with Flying Scotsman. Hope this helps!
John