A4s: The Long Goodbye (short)

The Great Goodbye at Locomotion, the National Railway Museums annexe in Shildon, County Durham, was the last NRM event to bring together all six surviving Gresley A4 Pacific locomotives in a year of celebrations commemorating the 75th anniversary of 4468 Mallard setting the world speed record for steam traction.

Three of the six still run. This film shows 4464 Bittern on her way and getting settled at Shildon. The weather was too awful (for me anyway) to go and film 60009 Union of South Africa arriving with Mallard and 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley managed to evade the attention of the website that was supposed to be following it and got there before I even left the house but there's some footage of the preparations then all three runners on brake-van rides during the event.

Websites
Locomotion: http://www.nrm.org.uk/locomotion
The National Railway Museum: http://www.nrm.org.uk
The Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Preservation Trust: http://www.sirnigelgresley.org.uk
The Gresley Society: http://www.gresley.org
The LNER Encyclopedia: http://www.lner.info

If the note at the beginning about Darlington Railway Museum (a.k.a. Head of Steam) got your attention read on. North Road Station was built by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1842 and much expanded during the next 30 or so years. The building is owned by Darlington Borough Council and has housed Darlington Railway Centre and Museum since 1975. The Museum is the current home of George Stephenson's Locomotion Number One, built for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the locomotive on the first steam-hauled passenger train in 1825.

Visitor numbers are low. In all candour a lack of publicity and Darlington Council renaming it after a pub' chain might have something to do with it- "Darlington Railway Museum" is self explanatory but Google "head of steam" and see what you get. The upshot is that the Council has made the decision to withdraw its funding from April 2016.

Nobody is suggesting that the Museum deserves a free ride but it ought not need one. The Stockton and Darlington Railway was the world's first modern railway (no matter what a few people in Manchester would have you believe) and the Museum is in one of the S&DR's station buildings- it should be a magnet for rail enthusiasts. The Friends of Darlington Railway Centre and Museum will be trying to gain the Museum the attention and the visitors it deserves over the next couple of years. You can help by being one of those visitors. If you need convincing surf to:
Darlington Railway Centre and Museum: http://www.head-of-steam.co.uk
The Friends of Darlington Railway Centre and Museum: http://www.friendsofdrcm.org

In the interests of transparency I should mention that this video has been posted by a member of the Friends of Darlington Railway Museum. In fairness it should also be mentioned that the Council has done much for the Museum in the past and one should perhaps be grateful that it has at least made its intentions plain well in advance.

Видео A4s: The Long Goodbye (short) канала TimRuffle