A Celebration of LNER A4 Pacifics
The book by John Jennison, entitled, "A Celebration of LNER A4 Pacific's," is a joy to behold. Published by Irwell Press, this book celebrates the class A4 Pacific's of the LNER, a class of locomotive which combined "function with form,", a true icon of the Art deco period of the 1920 & 30's.
The Art Deco Period of the 1920's & 30's saw a flourishing of art and design not only in the UK, abut in the world as a whole, a true worldwide art movement, when the designs for the were being drawn up by Nigel Gresley, C.M.E. of the LNER and Bert Spencer, Chief Draughtsman of the LNER, in 1934, the UK was coming out of the period of the "Great Depression, " of the early 1930's, caused by the "Wall Street," of 1929. At the same time a speed up of the Anglo -Scottish express<" services, was underway, as were the preparations for the "Silver Jubilee," of George V, so there were reason for the country to celebrate and the railways were no exception to this national mood.
The design produced by Gresley and Spencer, was a departure form conventional steam locomotive design, the streamlined wedge shape, was a modern aerofoil shape, like the wing of an aircraft, cutting edge design, a demonstration of modernity in steam locomotive design, which produced a class locomotives akin to racehorses on the ECML. A record breaking class of locomotives, as demonstrated by 4468 "Mallard, "in July 1938, when it captured the speed record for Steam locomotive, at 126mph.
Coming into service with the "Silver Jubilee," express services in 1935, this is the starting point for the book, John Jennison's book, take us through the history of the class, lavishly illustrated with high quality black and white photographs of the class. This book isn't an engineering study of the class, for that I would recommend that the reader, consults other publications, (O.S. Nock's volumes on the Gresley Pacific's, would be a good starting point to examine the engineering history of the A4 class,), The livery changes, the removal of the side valences during the war, to enable easier maintenance, elevated the streamlined look of the class, as well as the services that the class were employed on on the ECML, West Yorkshire, North East England and Scotland are well illustrated, with some fantastic photographs of class employed on the 3 hr express services between Aberdeen and Glasgow in the 1960's. Indeed it was in Scotland that the class made its final journey in capital for BR in September 1966, 60024, Kingfisher, hauled the last express service to be hauled by an A4 Pacific on BR metals, between Aberdeen and Glasgow.
This is a book that should be on the bookshelves of all fans of the A4 pacific class, a book that is worth a five star rating, a wonderful which celebrates an design icon of the 1930's.
