The Nene Valley Railway (NVR) in Peterborough has announced that it will host GWR Saint Class no. 2999 ‘Lady of Legend’ for a visit in September.

This is the first time that the NVR has welcomed this locomotive, and the first time it has visited the east of England.

In March, it joined the Flying Scotsman on a visit to the East Lancashire Railway.

No. 2999 is the sole locomotive of its class that is in preservation. Great Western Society preservationists rebuilt the loco and re-engineered it from a later class of locomotive.

GWR introduced the Saint class from 1902, but had scrapped the locos by 1953.

G.J. Churchward designed the Saint class, after studying locomotive design in the USA and applying ideas he had learned there. This design set the principles for GWR 2-cylinder classes over the following five decades.

Churchward’s successor, Charles Collett, converted ‘Saint’ no. 2925 ‘Saint Martin’ into the prototype for the Hall class of locomotives, He also used ‘Saint’ as a template for GWR 4-6-0s including the Grange, Manor and County classes. Aspects of Saint’s design influenced other railways’ locomotives, including the LMS Black 5, LNER B1 and BR Standard class 5.

‘Lady of Legend’ was developed and built by reversing the changes that Collett had made to no. 2925, by taking Hall class no. 4942 ‘Maindy Hall’, which was bought from Barry in the early 1970s in order to recreate a Saint.

However, the cost and the volume of work involved in the project meant that it started properly only in 1995.

The back conversion required new components, including three new sets of 6′ 8½” driving wheels to replace 4942’s 6′ driving wheels, and two sets of bogie wheels.

It also needed two new identical half-cylinder blocks to recreate the inside cylinders, as an integral part of the Saint design was that these were fed by a straight steam pipe.

The preservationists made a complete new lever reverser and heavily modified and straightened the frames.

They overhauled and rebuilt other major components, and sourced others from other GWR locos including a connecting rod from no. 2906 ‘Lady of Lyn’ and the whistle from no. 2910 ‘Lady of Shalott’.

‘Lady of Legend’ has been built in a way that allows it to be converted back to an even earlier design, allowing it to run as an Atlantic class 4-4-2. Thirteen Saints of this class were built, but were later converted to 4-6-0s.

The project to rebuild no. 2999 cost £825,000 to complete, and in February 2020 won the inaugural Chairman’s Special Prize at the Annual Heritage Railway Association awards.

It was also highly commended at the National Museums and Heritage Awards in September 2020.

NVR is grateful to Didcot Railway Centre and the Great Western Society (GWS) for allowing ‘Lady of Legend’ to visit.

2999 would have been the next production number for a Saint, so the rebuilt loco was given this number.

The last Saint previous to this, no. 2998 ‘Ernest Cunard’, was built and sent out from Swindon in 1913 -110 years ago this year, and 106 years between the two locos being completed!

Another anniversary this year is the centenary of the formation of the ‘big four’ railway companies – Great Western Railway (GWR), London North East Railway (LNER), London Midland Scottish (LMS) and Southern Railways. Lady of Legend’s visit to NVR is part of the centenary celebration.

During the visit, ‘Lady of Legend’ will run for two weekends, including:

• an evening fish and chip train running as ‘The Cambrian Coast Express’
• a pasty and pint train followed by live music running as ‘The Cornishman’
• driving experience courses
• a full line day time photographic charter with the freight train.

Nene Valley Railway will announce full details of these shortly. Tickets will be available from Thursday 22 June.