LNER Class V2 4771 Green Arrow

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 sole surviving member of its class, it was designed for hauling express freight and passenger trains[2] and named after an express freight service.[3]

London and North Eastern Railway 4771 Green Arrow
4771 Green Arrow as built, 1936.
Type and origin
Power typeSteam
DesignerSir Nigel Gresley
BuilderDoncaster Works
Build dateJune 1936
Specifications
Configuration:
​
 • Whyte2-6-2
Gauge4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Driver dia.74 in (1,880 mm)
Total weight145.1 long tons (147.4 t; 162.5 short tons)[1]
Fuel typeCoal
Boiler pressure220 psi (1,500 kPa)
Cylinders3
Performance figures
Tractive effort33,730 lbf (150.0 kN)
Career
Operators
ClassLNER Class V2
Numbers4771, renumbered 800, renumbered 60800
Official nameGreen Arrow
RetiredAugust 1962
Current ownerNational Railway Museum
DispositionStatic Display, Awaiting Overhaul

Operational life

Initially allotted the number 637, it was fitted with curved nameplates over the middle driving wheels. Before entry into LNER 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 on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in 2007.

Green Arrow was withdrawn from British Railways service in August 1962,[6] and selected for preservation within the national collection, it was restored at Doncaster Works.

With work completed in April 1963, it was followed by almost ten years of storage, 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] In September 1979, Green Arrow headed The Centenary Express, as part of an exhibition tour of the country organised by Travellers Fare to celebrate the centenary of on-train catering.[8][9] Green Arrow ran in preservation until being withdrawn from service on 21 April 2008, shortly before its boiler certificate expired.

Green Arrow at Crewe Works in 2003.

After a series of commemorative runs on preserved railways, the locomotive moved to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for their LNER gala. 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 is on static display at the National Railway Museum's Locomotion site at Shildon. 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.[10]

Fiction

Green Arrow appears in the 1991 The Railway Series book Thomas and the Great Railway Show double-heading a steam special to Scarborough with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Models
Bachmann model.

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, pp. 74, 93, figs. 63, 64.
  5. Boddy et al. 1984, pp. 74, 115.
  6. Boddy et al. 1984, p. 115.
  7. Boddy et al. 1984, p. 114.
  8. "Centenary Express". National-Preservation.com. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  9. "Centenary Express (1980)". IMDb. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  10. "Lottery grant for Leicester Railway Museum". Great Central Railway. http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/. 20 May 2015. Archived from the original on 15 June 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2015. External link in |publisher= (help)

References

Further reading
  • "The "Green Arrow" L.N.E.R. Three-cylinder 2-6-2 locomotive" (PDF). The Engineer. 161: 676. 26 June 1936. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 October 2014.
  • Rutherford, Michael; Blakemore, Michael (1997). Green Arrow and the LNER V2 Class. Penryn: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 0-906899-77-X.
  • Smith, Ian R. (2005). Living with Green Arrow. York: Friends of the National Railway Museum. ISBN 0-9546685-4-5.
  • Bellwood, F. J. (February 1982). "Green Arrow and the V2s". Steam World: 31–6.
  • "Leicester Museum's Four Locos". Leicester Museums. 1968. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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