One of the few positives to come out of the inter-war period in Britain was the emergence of a new breed of powerful steam locomotives, the Pacifics.
While the wheel arrangement had first been used by Churchward on the GWR in the early years of the century, it was with Gresley on the LNER that the type was really to take hold in Britain. His A1s and later A3 and A4 classes threw down the gauntlet to their rivals, the LMS who, with Sir William Stanier in charge, produced first the Princesses and later the Duchesses.
This is the story of some of these wonderful locomotives using both archive and more modern footage.
