Join us at the RH&DR to celebrate the 100th Birthday of No.1 ‘Green Goddess’ & No.2 ‘Northern Chief’.
1 & 2 will be double heading across the marsh all day on Saturday 5th July, starting at Hythe at 9:50am, with lots more surprises in store for the day, to celebrate this milestone!
Tickets can be purchased online or on the day.
About the locos:
NO.1 ‘Green Goddess: Ordered in 1924 by Count Louis Zborowski, Captain Howey’s original partner, and designed by Henry Greenly.
Greenly based them on Nigel Gresley’s famous A1 class locomotives of the London & North Eastern Railway, of which the Flying Scotsman is a surviving example. Green Goddess and tender cost £1,250 to build.
She was ready long before the railway, so Howey arranged for her to be tested on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway in Cumbria during 1925. Green Goddess carries a Wilcox chime whistle.
NO.2 ‘Northern Chief’: Ordered at the same time as Green Goddess, by Count Louis, and stored with her at New Romney until building of the line started.
She was used during construction and hauled the first official train on the occasion of the Duke of York’s visit on 5th August 1926.
In 1971 she was sent to the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway to assist that company in locomotive trials, becoming the second RH&DR loco to visit the Lake District.
Northern Chief has always been liveried in one green or another, except during the war when she was painted black.