The Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Trust has announced that an issue has been found with LNER A4 No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley which means it cannot haul tours until fixed.

60007 Sir Nigel Gresley returned to steam at the Severn Valley Railway (2 Disc DVD available here) after its £1m overhaul before test runs on the mainline.

After the successful members tour back in May, Sir Nigel Gresley has been fully certified for mainline operation. However, since then, members of the SNGLT have been assessing the locomotive.

A full investigation into an intermittent issue where steam appeared to be passing the regulator has been completed. The issue has been traced to the joint between the main steam pipe and the front tubeplate, or possibly the tubeplate end of the steam pipe itself.

Although relatively easy to fix, the problem requires a significant amount of disassembly in the smoke box.

Work is now underway, but means that the locomotive will not be in action again until later this summer.

The Trust says that it doesn’t expect this to impact its visit to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in September, but has said that its repaint into BR Blue has been postponed, and this will be reassessed in due course and a decision taken based on the speed of the repair and operational requirements.

A spokesperson for the SNGLT said “the locomotive will not be available for further operation until later this summer. We do not expect this to impact the planned visit to the North Yorkshire Moors in September however the repaint into BR Blue has been postponed,”

“The Trust expects Sir Nigel Gresley to be in traffic later in the summer as in every other respect the locomotive has performed superbly during trials and on the inaugural tour. We will advise plans for railtours in due course.”

This work will of course cost the Trust – if you would like to donate towards their work, please click here.

Like the featured image? It is available as part of RailAdvent’s DVD set of the Severn Valley Railway Spring Steam Gala. Click here for more information and to watch a trailer.