.jpg)
Completing our range of Bassett-Lowke 1930s streamliners, the ghost-grey gauge 0 Silver King A4 locomotive (LNER 2511) is one of the feathers in the cap of the museum’s collection. This very expensive 1936 model (costing £16-16s) was B-L’s response to the LNER’s 1935 Silver Jubilee streamlined train, honoring the Silver Jubilee of King George V. George then promptly died, the LNER changed the colour of subsequent A4s to blue, and B-L found themselves stuck with a set of very expensive models that were now an out-of-date colour.
Consquently, B-L only ever produced a single first-batch of six in grey, with the subsequent blue batches of A4 streamlners having different engineering and being a little cheaper.
Of those initial six, this is the only known survivor, and it is number one of six, the prototype for the batch, with its nose fabricated in steel rather than the brass used in the other five. This all makes the loco very special.
