Rail Legends

‘Golden Shuttle’ No. 4496 entered traffic in September 1937 in the LNER Garter Blue livery. Throughout the Second World War No. 4496 was painted in wartime black as were the majority of locomotives and on LNER locomotives they also removed the ‘L’ and the ‘R’ leaving ‘NE ’. It has sometimes been believed that this was done to confuse spies but also to reduce the materials and labour needed to maintain the locomotive.

LNER A4 Class No.4489 was outshopped on the 24th May 1937 from the Doncaster works and was originally to be named as ‘Buzzard’ then ‘Woodcock’. It was instead named ‘Dominion of Canada’ alongside other A4 Class locomotives named after British Commonwealth countries of the time.

Designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, A4 Class No.4488 was the fifteenth of the thirty-five A4 Class locomotives built. Entering service in 1937 No.4488 wore the LNER Garter Blue livery until 21st March 1942 when it was painted black. It was originally planned for No. 4488 to be named ‘Osprey’ but along with others in the class it was named after British Commonwealth countries. During the 1980s and 1990s it carried the nameplate ‘Osprey’ for political reasons.