IN EARLY June 1934, Cock o' the North, a huge new locomotive with eight 6ft 2in driving wheels, went on display at Ilford, Aberdeen then Edinburgh after its launch at King's Cross. Crowds flocked to see the London and North Eastern Railway's (LNER) No 2001, the first locomotive of the innovative 'P2' class designed by LNER chief engineer Sir Nigel Gresley to haul long passenger trains on the steep Edinburgh to Aberdeen route. Within a month, test runs By Sharon Ann Holgate Not content with bringing a Peppercorn class A1 Pacific back to life, the team behind Tornado are now building a new version of Britain's most powerful passenger steam locomotive ever -The Gresley class P2 had revealed Cock o' the North to be the most powerful passenger steam engine ever seen on British rails -A record the P2 locomotive class retains to this day. Despite their early success, by December 1944 Gresley's successor Edward Thompson had subjected all the P2s to a power-reducing conversion into a different locomotive class with six driving wheels in an effort to standardise the LNER fleet. The iconic Cock o' the North was eventually cut up just a month after its withdrawal from service in January 1960. A similar fate befell the other five P2 class locomotives, and by July 1961 they were no more. Now, thanks to the efforts of registered charity the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, who created Britain's newest steam locomotive, the Peppercorn class A1 Pacific Tornado, a new class P2 locomotive is emerging. No 2007 Prince of Wales is currently one year into its construction at the Darlington Locomotive Works (where the A1 Trust is based), and should be pulling passenger trains by 2021.
