| LNER Class A4 No. 4496 Dwight D. Eisenhower | |||||
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| On Display At National Railroad Museum | |||||
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The LNER (London & North Eastern Railway) 60008 Dwight D. Eisenhower, is a type of LNER Class A4 4-6-2 'Pacific' steam locomotive. This streamlined locomotive was built by the London & North Eastern Railway's Doncaster Works in the United Kingdom in September 1937, this coal burning A4 Pacific type (4-6-2) locomotive was originally numbered #4496 and named Golden Shuttle.
This streamlined Pacific locomotive was built for high-speed passenger service on the London & North Eastern Railway.
It was later renamed Dwight D. Eisenhower and then renumbered as #8 after WWII.
With nationalisation of the British Rail system in 1948 the locomotive became #60008. It spent much of its operating life working out of Kings Cross, London, and was finally withdrawn from service in July 1963.
Today, it's on static display at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Trivia[]
- The following year, the engine was restored at Doncaster and donated to the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay. It was shipped to the U.S.A., arriving in May 1964.
- In October 1990, #60008 was moved to Abilene, KS, for the celebrations of the centenary of Eisenhower's birth.
- In 2012, #60008 was loaned to the National Railway Museum in York, U.K., for 2 years. While there, it received a new coat of authentic BR Brunswick Green paint to replace the inaccurate shade applied during a repaint at Green Bay.
- It went on display at the York museum, as well as appearing at various times with five other A4 survivors.
- An anonymous donor apparently offered the Green Bay museum $1 million to allow the engine to stay in the UK but, in 2014, it returned to the USA.
- This locomotive had a non-standard red background to the nameplate company in 1958. During its time allocated to Grantham motive power depot, the name of the depot was stenciled on the buffer beam.
- As of 2022, it is the only British railway locomotive in the United States.
See also[]