John Bee and locomotive.

[Donches]

I'd appreciate an improvement of this photograph. The driver is John Bee and it was taken in the 1950's in Edinburgh. Can anyone identify the locomotive?

Don

[ainslie]

Hello.
As nobody has offered anything yet, I will have a go with the little I know.
By the 1950s the UK railway companies had been nationalised as British Railways, and were run as Regions.  Each region was given a prefix number, used before the loco’s previous company number, usually converting it to five figures.
London North Eastern:LNER was the major line from Edinburgh, but the loco seems to have a two-digit number.  I expected to see something like *4472, for one of the Flying Scotsman class but you will have to wait for better advice.
A

[tonepad]

The locomotive is a LNER Gresley A4 Pacific:


LNER No.   1946 No.   BR No.   Disposal Date            Name   

4483             24            60024    1966                    Kingfisher


https://www.lner.info/locos/A/a4.php


Tony

[Henry7]

This is a London & North Eastern Railway streamlined express engine named Kingfisher built at Doncaster in December 1936, and originally given the number 4483.  It was renumbered 24 (as in the photo) in May 1946 and was then painted blue. 

After nationalisation British Railways gave it the number 60024 in June 1948, so the date of the photo is mid-1946 to mid-1948.

[Redroger]

Repainting of stock was not the highest priority of the newly nationalised railway. Personally I would say before 1952, based on a paint in 1946 as shown, and a knowledge of general repair schedules which barring mishaps would be done every 4 to 6 years

[japeflakes]

..

[Henry7]

The dates when this engine was repainted, and the colours used, are all on record, thus:

When it was new, it was light green; in January 1938, blue; in February 1943 (wartime), black; in August 1946, blue.  The blue was the light LNER shade called 'garter blue'. 

Then under BR it was painted a purplish-blue in June 1948; in August 1950, dark blue, and in March 1952, dark GWR green, which (sadly, in my opinion) it retained until it was scrapped in 1966.

Harry. 

[Donches]

I'm delighted with the improvement to the photograph and the identification of the locomotive. I'm pretty sure that the boy in the cab was John Bee's nephew, Ian Bee. He was born in 1942 and looks about six in the photo, dating it to about 1948 which fits the information about the numbering of the engine.
As an aside, John Bee also drove the Flying Scotsman, and said he was the driver of the train in the film "The Thirtynine Steps", with Kenneth Moore, when it stopped on the Forth Bridge.

Don

[Redroger]

The information given by Henry 7 pins the photo date down to between 1946 and 1948 as it appears like known b&w photos of engines in Garter Blue. There were a variety of experimental liveries and letterings in the early days of BR despite financial constraints.