''Lode Star'' is the only remaining GWR 4000 Class locomotive. It is preserved at the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant r ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, UK. ''Lode Star'' was designed by George Jackson Churchward and was built in 1907, one of the first locomotives in its class to be built. The design of the locomotive was influenced by de Glehn, a French engineer. He used four cylinders on his locomotives, which Churchward copied. By using four cylinders it meant the locomotives were both powerful and fast. ''Lode Star'' survived into the

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

era, and was finally withdrawn in 1951. At this point it had covered 2,005,898 miles. ''Lode Star'' was preserved at the Great Western Museum in Swindon from 1962, and was transferred to the

in 1992, where it was a static non-working exhibit. In 2010 ''Lode Star'' was moved to Steam Museum in Swindon, as a static non-working exhibit. In November 2015 it was moved back to the

where in June 2019 it was on the publicly open pit, permitting examination of the underneath of the locomotive including the inside cylinders and valve gear.

References

External links

Image of the locomotive in service during the 1920s
* https://web.archive.org/web/20140419013512/http://www.steam-museum.org.uk/What%20to%20See/Pages/lars.aspx 4003 Railway locomotives introduced in 1907 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain 4-6-0 locomotives {{UK-steam-loco-stub