LNER A4 локомотиві 4464 Bittern та оның тарихы

One of the 35 built of the A4 steam engine class

4464 Bittern is a London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class A4 steam locomotive. Built for the LNER and completed on 18 December 1937 at Doncaster Works as works number 1866, it received number 4464. After that it was renumbered 19 on 16 August 1946 under the LNER 1946 renumbering scheme, and finally 60019 by British Railways on 10 October 1948, after nationalisation. Of the 35 strong class, it is one of six to survive into preservation but it is one of only two currently scheduled to be certified for mainline use. In preservation, the locomotive has also worn the identities of a number of its scrapped classmates, including the first of the A4 class 2509 Silver Link and most recently as 4492 Dominion of New Zealand.

Like the other members of its class, Bittern has worn many liveries throughout its career. When released to traffic on 18 December 1937, Bittern was wearing the garter blue livery that was standard for LNER A4 Pacific locomotives at that time. On 14 November 1941 it was repainted into wartime black with LNER markings on the tender. On 22 May 1943 the tender was modified with just the markings NE. It has sometimes been said that this was to confuse wartime spies, but the generally accepted view is that it was to save scarce materials and labour by reducing the number of letters by half. It has also been said that the change was to satisfy the vanity of the new Chief Mechanical Engineer, Edward Thompson, who was a product of the former North Eastern Railway, but this claim is widely discounted. Bittern remained in black until 7 March 1947 when repainted in LNER post war garter blue with extra red/white lining. Bittern was repainted next on 28 July 1950 into British Railways dark blue with black and white lining. The final repaint for Bittern was into British Railways green on 12 February 1952. Bittern had some livery variations applied; some of the A4s had red backgrounds applied to their nameplates, which were normally black. Bittern was seen with a red background circa 1966. The green livery had variations. Normally the boiler bands were lined out except for the firebox boiler band, which was plain green. Bittern, and other Darlington based A4s received lining on the firebox boiler band as well. Some A4s had their shed name marked on the right hand (looking from the front) buffer. Bittern was marked with Gateshead circa 1949 and Ferryhill shed (Aberdeen) later in the 1960s.

Like most other A4s, Bittern was fitted with side valances and a single chimney from new. The valances were removed during an overhaul 22 September – 14 November 1941. Its double chimney with a Kylchap double blastpipe was fitted on 6 September 1957. AWS (Automatic Warning System) was fitted 13 December 1958. Bittern was fitted with a full width bogie dust shield in 1950. The speed indicator was fitted 6 September 1960. Bittern has had fourteen boilers in its career. Bittern has had just one tender throughout its career, originally of the non corridor design. During the major overhaul which returned the engine to traffic in 2007 the tender was rebuilt as a corridor version to allow extra flexibility of operations.

Initially Bittern was based at Heaton in Newcastle and hauled the famous Flying Scotsman train on the section between London King's Cross and Newcastle. Early in her career, Bittern suffered some collision damage, necessitating a general overhaul at Doncaster Works from 3–4 January 1938. Bittern was transferred to Gateshead on 28 March 1943. With World War II, the named expresses were cut back as the country went to war. Bittern lost her garter blue paint for a wartime black and was required to pull longer than normal, and therefore very heavy, passenger trains. As the war continued the A4 locomotives were also to be seen hauling heavy freight and coal trains. This was not a task that the locomotives had been built for. The heavy loads and poor maintenance conditions took their toll, and by the end of the war the A4 locomotives were in a poor state. With the end of the war and nationalisation came better maintenance and the A4 class saw a return to the high speed expresses of the pre war years. Now in BR green Bittern hauled the Talisman from King's Cross to Edinburgh. Bittern was transferred to St Margarets on 28 October 1963. The A4 revival was short lived, as the steam pulled services were replaced by diesel hauled services and Bittern was moved to Scotland and put into storage. After a short period Bittern was moved to Ferryhill, Aberdeen on 10 November 1963 and ran to Edinburgh and Glasgow. This service only lasted three years. Bittern has the dubious honour of heading the last A4 Glasgow to Aberdeen and thus bring the curtain down on 30 years of service. Bittern was withdrawn on 3 September 1966. When she was bought for preservation, 'Bittern' had several major problems, such as the frames being cracked quite badly. These problems were known to British Rail, but were only lightly repaired, since with the end of steam it would have been uneconomic to completely repair the engine. This in turn affected her life in preservation and required important repairs been done to restore her to mainline standard.