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Introducing 4472 THE year 1923 was a momentous one for the railways of Great Britain, for it saw the amalgamation of most of the companies into the four groups which existed until the nationalization of the railways in 1948.

In 1922, the last year of its independent existence, the Great Northern caused a stir in the locomotive world when its Chief Mechanical Engineer, Mr. H. N. Gresley, produced his first Pacific, the largest engine ever built for the G.N.R. The preceding years had been almost exclusively a period of small engines, and the new giant, No. 1470 Great Northern was indeed the herald of a new age.

No. 1470 and her sister No. 1471 Sir Frederick Banbury were the last two express engines built for the independent G.N.R., but early the following year, the third member of the class emerged from Doncaster as L.N.E.R. No. 4472 Flying Scotsman, subsequently to appear in the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 at Wembley.

The appearance of a Gresley Pacific on the metals of the former G.W.R., though a rare sight, is not a new one. In 1925, No. 4474 Victor Wild was engaged in the most famous of all locomotive exchanges, with G.W.R. No. 4079 Pendennis Castle, going over to the L.N.E.R., while 4474 was engaged in working between Paddington and Plymouth. The results and the lessons of the exchanges are a story in themselves, and led to important changes of design in the L.N.E.R. Pacifics, but even the most dedicated Great Western supporter could not fail to admire the magnificent grace and proportions of the stranger. The development of the original Pacifics led to the A3 Class, and eventually to the streamlined A4, and the lessons learned on the G.W. were applied to such effect that the later Gresley Pacifics are acknowledged to have had no equal in the realms of high performance.

Flying Scotsman in her 1963 guise is now an A3, to which all the early Pacifics were modified, but her appearance is almost indistinguishable, apart from the cut-down chimney and elongated dome, from her original form. We are grateful that it has been possible for one of these truly beautiful engines to be preserved, and we are confident that her performance will match her good looks.

The Festiniog Railway Society Ltd. would like to take this opportunity of thanking her new owner for his kindness in allowing her to make her first public reappearance on this very special train.

Front cover: 4472 in a pre-war setting at King's Cross. From a painting by George Heiron. Blocks courtesy Model Railway News.