X-Nico

9 unusual facts about Nigel Gresley


Articulated vehicle

One of the first examples of articulated railway carriages were used by London and North Eastern Railways in Great Britain on their London Suburban Trains in the mid-1920s ; these trains (rolling stock) were designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and built at the LNER's Doncaster Works.

Booster engine

In Great Britain, the Gresley P1 2-8-2 locomotives for the London and North Eastern Railway, of which only two were built, were equipped with booster units.

Holcroft valve gear

When working for the GWR, Holcroft collaborated with Sir Nigel Gresley to invent and patent the Gresley conjugated valve gear for three-cylinder steam locomotives.

Holcroft’s conjugation mechanism was a revision of Nigel Gresley’s method of operating the "inside" cylinder via an extension of the "outside" valve spindles on LNER locomotives.

Kylchap

Sir Nigel Gresley of the LNER became a proponent when he incorporated double Kylchap exhausts into four of his A4 Pacifics, including the world speed record holder Mallard.

Nigel Gresley

Gresley developed an interest in breeding wild birds and ducks in the moat; intriguingly, among the species were Mallard ducks.

An A1 pacific, Flying Scotsman, was the first steam locomotive officially recorded over 100 mph in passenger service, and an A4, number 4468 Mallard, still holds the record for being the fastest steam locomotive in the world (126 mph).

The Iron Maiden

It was then sold to George Hawkins, before passing into the Dr Tony Marchington collection in Derbyshire, following its sale at the 1993 Great Dorset Steam Fair and became part of the same collection as Flying Scotsman, Nigel Gresley's world famous LNER rail locomotive.

The Royal Scotsman

Pullman car Raven, acquired at the same time as the other Pullman cars, was converted in 1992 as a replacement for the Gresley car that formed the kitchen.


Richard Maunsell

After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, he began an apprenticeship at the Inchicore works of the Great Southern and Western Railway (GSWR) under H. A. Ivatt in 1886, completing his training at Horwich Works on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (as Nigel Gresley had done before him).


see also

Sir Thomas Gresley, 10th Baronet

Gresley was born at Netherseal, (then in) Leicestershire, the son of Rev. Sir William Nigel Gresley, 9th Baronet and his wife Georgina Anne Reid.