LNER Class V2 4771 Green Arrow

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London and North Eastern Railway 4771 Green Arrow
LNER V2 60800 'Green Arrow' at Crewe Works.jpg
Green Arrow in BR green livery. Crewe Works open day, 1 June 2003.
Type and origin
Power type Steam
Designer Sir Nigel Gresley
Builder Doncaster Works
Build date June 1936
Specifications
Configuration 2-6-2
Gauge 4 ft 8 12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Driver diameter 74 in (1,880 mm)
Loco & tender weight 145.1 long tons (147.4 t; 162.5 short tons)[1]
Fuel type Coal
Boiler pressure 220 psi (1,500 kPa)
Cylinders 3
Performance figures
Tractive effort 33,730 lbf (150.0 kN)
Career
Operators London and North Eastern Railway
Class LNER Class V2
Numbers 4771, renumbered 800, renumbered 60800
Official name Green Arrow
Retired August 1962
Current owner National Railway Museum
Disposition Static Display, Awaiting Overhaul

The LNER Class V2 2-6-2 steam locomotive, number 4771 Green Arrow was built in June 1936 for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley. The first-built and only surviving member of its class, it was designed for hauling express freight and passenger trains[2] and named after an express freight service.[3]

The locomotive was initially allotted the number 637, and fitted with curved nameplates over the middle driving wheels. The official photographs were taken with this livery. Before entry into service the number was altered to 4771, and the curved nameplates were replaced with straight nameplates mounted on the sides of the smokebox. In order to do this, the builder's plate (Doncaster Works No. 1837) had to be re-located to below the cab windows.[4]

The locomotive was later allocated no. 700 in 1943, but this never carried and was revised to 800 in April 1946, and that number was applied by the LNER in November 1946, and 60800 by British Railways in February 1949.[5]

Preservation

Green Arrow at rest. Bewdley, Severn Valley Railway, October 2007

The locomotive was withdrawn from service in August 1962.[6] Selected for preservation, it was restored at Doncaster Works, where the work was completed in April 1963. Almost ten years of storage then followed, during which it was moved several times. A transfer from Doncaster to Hellifield occurred in October 1964; the locomotive was moved to Wigston in 1967 - this was intended to be the final temporary home, since it was intended that Green Arrow would become one of the permanent exhibits in a Municipal Museum which was proposed for the nearby city of Leicester. However, before the museum was ready, demolition of Wigston locomotive depot was scheduled, and the locomotive was sent south to the Preston Park shops of the Pullman Car Company in September 1970. The National Railway Museum (NRM) was then being planned, and in November 1971 Green Arrow was selected for the National Collection, items from which would form the main display in the NRM. The locomotive was again moved, this time to Norwich depot in January 1972, where it was returned to working order; the first trial trip, to Ely, was on 28 March 1973. It then commenced a series of runs at the head of special trains, before being moved to Carnforth on 2 July 1973.[7] Green Arrow ran in preservation until being withdrawn from service on 21 April 2008, shortly before its boiler certificate expired.

File:4771 at Sheffield.jpg
Green Arrow at Sheffield while on a charter service in late 1978 or early 1979

After a series of commemorative runs on preserved railways, the locomotive moved to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for their LNER gala.[when?] Following the first gala weekend the boiler was found to have two cracked superheater tubes; temporary repairs allowed the loco to make a final run on the second weekend before being finally withdrawn. Following this the loco returned to the National Collection and was on static display at the National Railway Museum's Locomotion site at Shildon. Green Arrow is now on static display in the great hall at NRM York, awaiting overhaul. In 2015 it was announced that Green Arrow is one of the planned exhibits for the Great Central Railway's proposed railway museum located at Leicester North station. [8]

Fiction

Green Arrow appears in The Railway Series book Thomas and the Great Railway Show double-heading a steam special to Scarborough with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Models

Bachmann and Graham Farish produce models of Green Arrow for OO gauge and N gauge respectively as part of the 2011 range.

Notes

  1. NRM, p. 2.
  2. Boddy et al. 1984, p. 70.
  3. Boddy et al. 1984, p. 93.
  4. Boddy et al. 1984.
  5. Boddy et al. 1984, pp. 74, 115.
  6. Boddy et al. 1984, p. 115.
  7. Boddy et al. 1984, p. 114.
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References

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Further reading

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External links