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Premature Farewell to Steam Legend

Premature Farewell to Steam Legend

08/04/2008

After Green Arrow worked the festival weekend at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR), it was discovered during a routine inspection on Monday 31st March that two tubes in the locomotive's boiler were leaking.

Green Arrow was allowed to go cold so a full mechanical examination could take place the following morning. Regrettably two super heater flues were found to have cracked, and with less than a month of operation before the expiration of historic locomotive's boiler certificate, it was not feasible to embark on a repair programme because it would take in excess of eight weeks. 

Green Arrow has now finished her working life and will now be preserved for the nation on static display.
Helen Ashby, Head of Knowledge and Collections at the NRM said:
"Naturally we are very disappointed Green Arrow has been unable to see out her final days of steam, but we hope that the public will still take the opportunity to say a fond farewell to this hardworking veteran."
Now having finished her working life on Yorkshire soil, it is planned that Green Arrow will be on static display at the NYMR for the weekend's LNER Steam Festival. Arrangements will then be made for the well-known locomotive to go to Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon. 

Here are a few Green Arrow facts for steam fans:-

  • Green Arrow entered serviced after construction at Doncaster Works on 1 June 1936. On 13 June 1936, the engine entered service, painted in LNER's Apple Green livery and bearing the number 4771.
  • After the nationalisation of the railways in 1948, Green Arrow was re-numbered 60800 and re-painted in black British Railways livery. She returned to green, albeit BR Brunswick Green, in 1958.
  • The locomotive was withdrawn from service on 21 August 1962 and entered preservation. She then went on to become part of the National Collection. The engine was restored by the former Norwich shedmaster, Bill Harvey, and the Norfolk Railway Society and has been a regular mainline performer ever since.
  • In 1975, Green Arrow transferred to the new National Railway Museum in York. The engine was in steam for the opening ceremony performed by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh on 27 September 1975. Locomotive No 4771 was last overhauled in 1998 by the National Railway Museum in a project funded by Huddersfield business, Dr. Michael Peagram.

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