Railway Steam Engine Birthday Cards- LNER Thompson B1

Edward Thompson is generally loathed by Railway enthusiasts for his redesigning of Sir Nigel Gresley designs. He did however produce several notable engines and the most successful of these was probably the LNER/BR B1 4-6-0.  Though not an austerity type as such, the prototype and first production locomotives were produced under wartime conditions, Thompson going to great lengths to re-use existing parts and simplify the loco for ease of building and maintenance. Some 40 engines received names related to South Africa and breeds of Antelope, the name Bongo  being used colloquially for the class as a whole.

The class were removed from service by 1967 but two were saved for preservation. Philip D. Hawkin’s railway art birthday/greeting card shows one of the class gently simmering on a warm summers evening.