LNER Class A4 2509 Silver Link

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Silver Link
60014 Silver Link Doncaster Works.jpg
Silver Link at Doncaster Works in March 1963, shortly before it was broken up for scrap
Type and origin
Power typeSteam
BuilderLNER, Doncaster Works
Serial number1818
Build dateSeptember 1935
Specifications
Configuration:
​
 • Whyte4-6-2
 • UIC2'C1h3
Gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Leading dia.3 ft 2 in (0.965 m)
Driver dia.6 ft 8 in (2.032 m)
Trailing dia.3 ft 8 in (1.118 m)
Boiler pressure250 psi (1.72 MPa)
CylindersThree
Cylinder size18.5 in × 26 in (470 mm × 660 mm)
Loco brakeSteam
Train brakesLNER: Vacuum
Performance figures
Tractive effort35,455 lbf (157.7 kN)
Career
OperatorsLNER, BR
ClassA4
Number in class35
NumbersLNER 2509, 14, BR 60014
Official nameSilver Link
DispositionScrapped at Doncaster Works in 1963

Silver Link was the first London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) A4 Class locomotive, built in 1935 to pull a new train called the Silver Jubilee.

History[]

Silver Link entered service with a demonstration journey from King's Cross on 27 September 1935. It reached a speed of 112.5 mph (181 km/h), breaking all previous UK records.[1] The record provoked the LNER and their chief rival the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) into a highly competitive speed war, each attempting to outdo the other by building ever faster locomotives. The main protagonists were Sir Nigel Gresley, LNER's chief mechanical engineer, and his counterpart at LMS, Sir William Stanier.

Naming[]

Silver Link was so named after a reference to love in Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel, which reads:

True love's the gift which God has given
To man alone beneath the heaven;
It is not fantasy's hot fire,
Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly;
It liveth not in fierce desire,
With dead desire it doth not die;
It is the secret sympathy,
The silver link, the silken tie,
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind,
In body and in soul can bind.[2]

The engine was "officially named" (using its real name) in the opening scene of the 1937 comedy film Oh, Mr Porter!.

Scrapping and legacy[]

Allocated to Kings Cross shed, it was withdrawn from service on 29 December 1962 when the East Coast Main Line express services were taken over by Deltic diesel locomotives. It was not preserved after withdrawal and was broken up for scrap at Doncaster Works on 7 September 1963, on the same site where it had been built nearly twenty eight years earlier.[3][4] There was an attempt by Sir Billy Butlin to save the locomotive, but it was unsuccessful.[5]

Two examples of the Silver Link nameplate are on display at the National Railway Museum, York, UK.[6]

The Silverlink area of North Tyneside is named after the locomotive; the name of the area was taken after another A4 locomotive, Bittern, had been displayed at the North Tyneside Steam Railway disguised as Silver Link in the early 1990s.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ Nock, O. S. (1972) [1971]. Speed Records on Britain's Railways: a chronicle of the steam era. The David & Charles series. London: Pan. pp. 149–50. ISBN 0-330-23365-3.
  2. ^ Bartleby.com.
  3. ^ Boddy, M. G.; Neve, E.; Yeadon, W. B. (April 1973). Fry, E. V. (ed.). Locomotives of the L.N.E.R., part 2A: Tender Engines - Classes A1 to A10. Kenilworth: RCTS. p. 134. ISBN 0-901115-25-8.
  4. ^ http://railwayphotoprints.co.uk/image/detail/41[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ Scott, Peter (February 2001). A History of the Butlin's Railways: The Story of Billy Butlin's Amusement Park and Holiday Camp Miniature Railways, Including Other Associated Railways and Transport Systems. Issue 2 of Minor Railway Histories Series. p. 130. ISBN 1902368096. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  6. ^ National Railway Museum, object number: 1975-7609
  7. ^ "Silverlink Business Park - Great train inspired the park name". The Journal. Newcastle upon Tyne. 27 March 1991. p. 24.
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