Roster Page 24

88 0 0
                                    


(24) Rex

                   Rex is an Ex-LNER P2 class 2-8-2 mikado, designed by Sir Nigel Gresley to run the heavy express passenger traffic to Aberdeen. Rex was completed in the October of 1934, being built along side P2 2002 Earl Marischal as an extra test bed for piston valves and valve gear on future P2 locomotives, a fact that Rex tends ignore. When the next 4 P2's rolled out of Doncaster with an A4 styled front end, and the valve gear modifications deemed necessary based off of tests performed, Rex was seen as redundant due tot he services to Aberdeen now having a fleet of streamlined mikados already lined up. Thankfully, the NWR had been looking for a heavy express locomotive to work on the mainline from Arlesburgh to Barrow In Furness and beyond, so the big Doncaster drawn mikado would soon take up residence at Arlesburgh MPD, where the Dark green number 24 is allocated to this day. Rex has almost always been a cheeky and arrogant sort of engine, always trying to hype his status up in an attempt to run from his own faults, but he makes up for that with his positive attitude and his willingness to admit when he's wrong. 

North Western ProfilesWhere stories live. Discover now