Sir Nigel Gresley - Kings Cross, London.
Posted by: 
greysman
N 51° 31.877 W 000° 07.443
30U E 699471 N 5712829
A larger-than-life-sized bronze statue of this famous 20th century railway engineer.
Waymark Code: WMZYV6
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/25/2019
Views: 8
Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley was the chief mechanical engineer of the Great Northern Railway and its successor, the London & North Eastern Railway, from 1911 until 1941.
Born in 1876 in Edinburgh he was raised in Netherseal, Derbyshire. He served his apprenticeship at the Crewe works of the London and North Western Railway and then was a pupil on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway under John Aspinall. Several minor appointments followed until in 1903 he became works manager at the Newton Heath depot of the L&YR. The next year he was made Assistant Superintendent in the carriage and wagon dept., then a year later moved to the Great Northern Railway as Carriage and Wagon Superintendent and in 1911 succeeding Henry A.Ivatt as CME. At the grouping in 1923 he was appointed CME of the newly formed London North Eastern Railway.
Working from an office in Kings Cross station he designed some of the most well known express steam locomotives of the early 20th century including the A1 and A4 4-6-2 Pacific engines. A1 Flying Scotsman was the first steam locomotive officially recorded at over 100mph and A4 Mallard still holds the record for the fastest steam locomotive in the world, 126mph. His invention of the conjugated valve gear for three-cylinder engines, working with Harold Holcroft, lead to a smooth running locomotive with lower cost power output than could be achieved with three separate sets of valve gear.
Gresley was awarded the CBE in 1920 and was knighted in the 1936 Birthday Honours.
The associated plaque tells us that this statue was unveiled at King's Cross station on 5 April 2016, the 75th anniversary of his death, and the sculptor was Hazel Reeves. It includes a QR Coded link to the Gresley Society Trust. A further plaque commemorating him has been placed at Edinburgh Waverley station, it was set there in 2001 by the Gresley Society and incorporates line drawings of his Flying Scotsman and Mallard locomotives.
The statue is larger-than-life-sized in bronze showing Sir Nigel wearing a three-piece suit with Albert, he's carrying a notebook in his left hand, right hand in jacket pocket. As can be seen there is no plinth, there was to be one but as we read in Wikipedia the duck on the plinth at Sir Nigel's feet was removed at the request of the family.
Further reading from Wikipedia at Sir Nigel_Gresley
Co-ordinates are approximate due to the GPSr variability under the new canopy.