THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN
The British Empire Exhibition of 1924 became the focal point of one of the most important stories in British steam locomotive development. The exhibition itself was organised to galvanise the Empire in the wake of the Great War as Britain’s standing on the world stage was starting to be threatened by rising powers, such as the USA and Japan.
But it’s taken on a greater significance for railway enthusiasts because, with LNER ‘A1’ 4-6-2 No. 4472 Flying Scotsman displayed next to GWR ‘Castle’ 4-6-0 No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle, fierce debate arose over which one deserved the title of ‘most powerful’. The result, as we all know, was a series of trials in 1925 where the puny looking ‘Castle’ emerged victorious and Gresley would go on to incorporate many Great Western ideas into subsequent 4-6-2 designs.
Yet Britain held another national event in the wake of a global conflict that seems to have passed us railway enthusiasts by. Whereas O.S.Nock dedicates seven pages to the British Empire Exhibition and the subsequent trials in his The GWR Stars, Castles & Kings book, the most thorough account of the 1951 Festival of Britain comprises nothing more than a handful of paragraphs in the RCTS’ history of BR’s ‘Britannia’ 4-6-2s.
Author Paul Chancellor describes how Crewe Works gave ‘Britannia’ 4-6-2 No. 70004 William Shakespeare an exquisite paint finish for display in South London and records how it was towed from Crewe to Neasden by March 30-April 1 and was on site by April 2.
That seems to be about the limit of our understanding about an event of national importance that took place only 70 years ago. Start digging, however, and you start to discover that the Festival of Britain might have had more links to the railway than the display of a solitary ‘Britannia’.
The early history of BR’s Mk 1 coach is littered with Festival references. The Festival crops up again in reference to some well-known named trains. Even one locomotive in the National Collection at York owes its survival to the Festival of Britain.
And, most intriguingly of all, the Festival of Britain is responsible for the surreal sight of a
