Uploaded July 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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What perhaps are the most talked about Gresley locomotives that were not Pacifics... For most of their lives. The London & North Eastern Railway class P2, built entirely for work in Scotland, had a rocky life, from the very first member running hot during tests to the very last days working express freights under British Railways ownership. But has their reputation preceded them...

A huge thank you to Ian MacCabe of the Gresley Society and Sophie Bunker-James from the A1 Trust. Mister MacCabe gave me permission to use the Society’s wonderful archive photographs of the original P2, and even sent in his own colourisation of some photos. Without Ms Bunker-James I would not have known where to start digging, and she very kindly showed interest in the video itself.

SOURCES AND CREDIT:

The Gresley Society - gresley.org

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust - a1steam.com


The black and white photographs of the LNER P2: courtesy of The Gresley Society
The colourised images of the LNER P2 / A2/2 copyright: Ian MacCabe - ian@gresley.org

Image of A2/2 60503 'Lord President' at Doncaster station - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doncaster_railway_station_geograph-2261727-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

Image of A2/2 60505 'Thane of Fife' at York - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:LNER_Thompson_Class_A2/2s_on_the_East_Coast_Main_Line#/media/File:York_Locomotive_Yard_with_A2-2_Pacific_geograph-2827807-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

Image of A2/2 60506 'Wolf of Badenoch' on an express - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:LNER_Thompson_Class_A2/2s_on_the_East_Coast_Main_Line#/media/File:Woolmer_Green_with_King's_Cross_-_Glasgow_and_Aberdeen_express_geograph-2828920-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

Image of 'Mons Meg' (Public Domain) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mons_Meg#/media/File:MonsMeg.JPG


Image of Edward Thompson - Courtesy of LNER Encyclopedia

Image of Nigel Gresley - Courtesy of LNER Encyclopedia

Image of O.V.S. Bullied (Public Domain) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Bulleid#/media/File:Oliver_Bulleid_1947.jpg

LNER Encyclopedia - lner.info

Map of the Aberdeen Road route (Public Domain) - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rail_map_Scotland_Edinburgh-Aberdeen_line.png

Railway Mania PODCAST Ep.5 - Edward Thompson, Hero or Villain? (with Simon A.C. Martin) - youtube.com/watch?v=AsY6AW5Ts08

Unless stated otherwise in either the video or the description, footage and photographs are my own work.


External offline sources used:
'The Great Book Of Trains' by Brian Hollingsworth & Arthur Cook, published by Salamander Books Ltd;
'British Locomotive Classes' by Michael Harris, published by Ian Allan Ltd;
'Steam Finale Scotland' by Brian J. Dickson, published by Ian Allan Publishing;
'The Observer's Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain' by H. C. Casserley, published by Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd;
''Winston Churchill' And The Bulleid Pacifics' by Rob Adamson and Chris Nettleton, published by Friends of the National Railway Museum.

LINKS



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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 )



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