Two A4s to come home from North America – official!
By: Robin Jones
AS exclusively revealed in Heritage Railway, and first announced on this website in August 2011, the National Railway Museum has confirmed that a formal agreement has been reached with transatlantic colleagues to temporarily repatriate two A4 class locomotives to play a part in the celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of Mallard’s world record breaking 126mph run down Stoke Bank in Lincolnshire on July 3 1938.
THe six surviving A4s lined up, in a computer-generated image created by Heritage Railway.
Exporail, the Canadian National Railway Museum in Montreal, has agreed to release No. 60008 Dwight D Eisenhower, and the National Railroad Museum, Green Bay, Wisconsin, will release No. 60010 Dominion of Canada. Both locomotives will be loaned to the National Railway Museum for two years, it was officially confirmed on January 25.
The pair will be used to stage a line-up of all six surviving A4s including Mallard.
Steve Davies, Director of the National Railway Museum, said: “I am delighted that the two museums involved have shared in the National Railway Museum’s vision to make this happen and I have no doubt that what is being planned will be beneficial to all parties.”
The two locomotives concerned will be a central feature of a series of events being planned to mark this historic anniversary and full details of these events are still to be finalised.
Discussions with the owners of the privately-owned UK based locomotives are being conducted in order to generate a number of line up opportunities involving all six A4s at a number of locations, of which York will be the principal venue.
The movement of the locomotives is currently being planned with the intention of drawing on direct industry sponsorship for much of the activity involved. It is hoped that both locomotives will be moved in autumn 2012.
Details of an appeal for cash to support the project will be circulated separately if this is deemed desirable and/or necessary.
Steve Davies added: “We hope that the entire UK railway enthusiast community will appreciate and applaud the ambition involved in taking forward this project, pay tribute to the willingness of the owners of these locomotives to be equal partners in this venture, and of course visit this never-to-be-repeated series of events in 2013”.
The full story of the groundbreaking bid to repatriate the two exiled A4s from North America appeared in Heritage Railway issue 154.
Locomotive repatriation specialist Andrew Goodman had made two trips to North America to see if it was feasible.
As part of the deal, Dominion of Canada will undergo some cosmetic restoration.
3 Responses to “Two A4s to come home from North America – official!”
Martin Creese Says:
January, 26th 2012 at 11:06 am
60008 is Dwight D Eisenhower and 60010 Dominion of Canada . a slight error in the press release which is being reproduced
Marcus81 Says:
January, 25th 2012 at 09:50 pm
Fantastic news! :-)
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transheldrake Says:
February, 15th 2012 at 12:19 am
When you see the state of Dominion of Canada, she should not be sent back. She lived in the back of the most run down museum I have ever visited, an absolute disgrace.
One of my earliest train memories was her crossing the viaduct in Durham,(circa 1955) my grandfather got me out of bed to see her as she past our hotel's window.