Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Once upon a time, the East Coast Mainline was dominated by massive 12-wheeled locomotives, be they steam or diesel. But this so-called "big engine policy" was started all the way back in 1898, by Henry Alfred Ivatt. And how did he set the tone for such monsters as the Gresley A3, A4, and their venerable diesel replacements?

With a little Atlantic, that's how...!


SOURCES & CREDIT

GNR C1 No.251 by Andy Dingley (scanner) - Scan from Howden, J.R. (1907) The Boys' Book of Locomotives, London: E. Grant Richards, pp. facing p. 29, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10528307

GNR C1 No.282 on the Leeds Luncheon-car express by Ernest Protheroe - archive.org/details/railwaysofworld00protrich/page/352/mode/1up, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151189911

GNR C1 No.984 on an express by unknown (not credited) - Original: G. F. Bird. (1910). The locomotives of the Great Northern Railway, facing p. 149Scan: Internet Archive – archive.org/details/locomotivesofgrea00bird, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16012811

GNR O2 No.478 by https://ba.e-pics.ethz.ch/catalog/ETHBIB.Bildarchiv/r/995505/viewmode=infoview/qsr=gnr, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=142091304

Gresley A1 Pacific 4-6-2 under construction at Doncaster Works by Andy Dingley (scanner) - Scan from Allen, Cecil J. (1928) The Steel Highway, London: Longmans, Green & Co., pp. facing page. (II) 5, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10636743

LNER K2 on the "Clacton Express" Pullman by Andy Dingley (scanner) - Scan from Allen, Cecil J. (1928) The Steel Highway, London: Longmans, Green & Co., pp. facing page. 128 (I), Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10650713



Website sources

gnrsociety.com/locomotive-class/a4-and-a5

steamindex.com/locotype/ivattloco.htm#a4



Literary sources:

'British Locomotives Of The 20th Century' by O.S. Nock, published by Guild Publishing

'Great Northern 4-4-2 'Atlantics'' by O.S. Nock, published by Patrick Stephens Limited

'LNER' by Geoffrey Hughes, published by Malaga Books

'LNER Album' (Volume One) by Brian Stephenson, published by Ian Allan



Video sources:

'The Decades Of Steam - 1920s' by Ian Allan



LINKS



Discord server - discord.gg/PtekEPJ


Twitter - twitter.com/TeaWithCaramel1


Outro music: Kevin MacLeod - Fiddles McGinty
(Fiddles McGinty by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1400051

Artist: incompetech.com )



Channel icon by Dean Walker - https://bsky.app/profile/ohlookitstrainart.bsky.social

Thumbnail art by:
- @RoseAffogato twitter.com/RoseAffogato

#LNER