This page dedicated to the memory of one of the worlds greatest steam engineers, Sir Nigel Gresley and one of his almost undocumented achievements, the Class P2 2-8-2   'Mikado'.

Part of the reason that there is very little documentation and even fewer photographs is because they did not pull any 'named' trains. And of course they also lived in the shadow of the Gresley's most famous A4's.

As you can see there were only six loco's ever built. The life span being around 26 years. Most steam loco's were killed off in England around the early 1960's due to the introduction of diesel-electric locomotives and only the historically significant survived. Gresley settled on the 2-8-2 design as it would accomodate a wide firebox and better riding over the Edinburgh-Aberdeen main line that had sharply undulating curves. LNER had the course specifically created for his 2-8-2.

The P2's had no British equal as load hauliers in express passenger work, but although they were triumphantly vindicated in concept they were flawed in mechanical detail; and that was not seriously tackled before the WW II. Gresley died in 1941 and sadly his successor Edward Thompson, was so determined not to live in his shadow that rather than attempt to refine the 2-8-2s he ruthlessly ordered their reconstruction as ungainly and unsuccessful 4-6-2 Class 'A2/2' Pacific's.

Another great P2 site by Alan 'Fred' Pipes at
www.geocities.com/fredpipes/trains/p2.html