Two of Gresley's Finest

The two photographs in today's post, 24th November 2014, feature jigsaws showing two of Sir Nigel Gresley's famous locomotives, a 'V2' and an 'A1' (later 'A3').

The first picture shows a 'V2' class 2-6-2 No. 60800 Green Arrow as depicted in a Demand Media Ltd., 500-piece jigsaw puzzle. The artwork is not known to me but is of a poster style, not to everyone's taste but, in my opinion, very effective. The locomotive is shown in British Railways days post 1956.  One hundred and eighty four locomotives were built beginning in 1936 and the class took eight years to complete. 'V2s' were known as mixed traffic locomotives being equally at home on passenger or freight duties. My wife and I had the pleasure of boarding 'The Scarborough Flyer' at York  several years ago when Green Arrow was at the head.

The second picture needs little introduction and is presented in the same poster style as above.  Displaying her 'Apple Green' London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) livery, is the famous 'A1' class 4-6-2 locomotive, (later rebuilt as an 'A3')  No.4472 Flying Scotsman. She was the first locomotive to officially break the 100mph speed barrier which she accomplished in 1934, eleven years after she was built at Doncaster Works. She was rebuilt as an 'A3' class locomotive in 1947. The locomotive has had a few private owners in preservation and ran on the main line for several years. She was purchased for the Nation in 2004 by the National Railway Museum at York. However, after many problems, she is now being restored to main line condition at a workshop in Bury, in preparation for a return in 2015.

Montages

Two montage style jigsaw puzzles, each comprising many images blended into a single jigsaw, make up today's post, 12th November 2014.

The first picture features a 1000-piece jigsaw from Gibsons titled Back to the Future. Four of the steam locomotive images represent  major regions of British Railways, taking us back to that nostalgic steam era. A central, overlaid fifth image shows the new-build locomotive of 2008, Tornado, showing steam of the future. They are all the work of top railway artist Barry Freeman. 

The second jigsaw picture shows a Falcon 1000-piece montage titled Travel by Rail. The nine paintings depicted in a pinboard style are all by Mike Jefferies, another top railway artist.