5 inch gauge GNR Stirling 8 foot single

A 5 inch gauge Stirling 8 foot single - readers will forgive the following lines from a description of another we currently have in stock!

Patrick Stirling's supremely elegant design for the Great Northern Railway, a successful class of express locomotives built over a twenty-five year period in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

They played a key role in the "Race to the North" series of runs which took place over the summers of 1895/96, pitting the Great Northern against their rivals on the west coast, the London and North Western, Stirling's Singles against Webb's Precedent 2-4-0s.

Withdrawal of the Singles started in 1899, as Ivatt's Atlantics - first in small boiler form, latterly his seminal large-boiler design - took over the express services. The first of the class, No.1, happily remains with us in preservation, part of the National Collection.

A well-built engine, the boiler has had hydraulic and steam tests, with new certification issued following replacement of the original safety valve which accumulated. The engine steams freely and ran well on the rolling road.