Sir Nigel Gresley The LNER's First CME
Simon A C Martin
Strathwood Publishing, Unit 4 Shuttleworth Rd, Elm Farm Industrial Estate, Bedford MK41 0EP. Tel: 01234 328792. Web: strathwood.co.uk Description: Hardback, 302x 218mm, 456pp. ISBN: 9781913390884. Price £49.95.
In 1942, the LNER was so worried about the deteriorating mechanical condition of its locomotive fleet that it invited LMS CME Sir William Stanier and his assistant Stuart Cox to come over carry out an inspection and write a report.
It was just a year after the death of Sir Nigel Gresley, and their suggestions on the abandoning of his patented conjugated valve year were so damning that the document, ordered by Edward Thompson and Chief General Manager Sir Charles Newton, was marked up ‘not to be published’. Advised that their engines ran hot six times as often as their counterparts on the LMS, the Emergency Board gave Thompson permission to proceed with his plans for major change.
These revelations are in one of the appendices of a weighty 456-page volume that collectors of Gresleyana will and the , and has a foreword by the great man's engineer grandson Ben Godfrey. The colourising of a few images give new vigour to even familiar views such as No. 4498 standing alongside Stirling ‘Single’ No 1 at the original Stevenage station.
