Hastings

Hastings is an LNER A1 Peppercorn like Tornado. He is an OC owned by Harv. He is side character in NWR Futures but has a history of being a main or supporting character.

## Biography:

60164 "Hastings" was a member of the Peppercorn A1 class, designed by Arthur Peppercorn respectively. Completed in Darlington Works around January 14th, 1950. He was to be, and was the last Peppercorn A1 Pacific to be built and withdrawn. There was one last order for a Peppercorn A1, which was Hastings himself. It was decided that no.60164 would be named 'Hastings' named after the town of Hastings, located on the southeast coast of England.

Hastings started his early days in Darlington 51A. Mainly pulling large passenger trains; and sometimes freight trains if required, which wasn't often. Hastings would eventually be moved to New England MPD (31E, 31A) for service from Kings Cross to wherever required. However usually it was from Kings Cross to York. This would eventually change at the start of his early Late Years, being sent to York 50A where our man would finish his service life from.

The "Mid Days" were considered rather dark for Hastings, actually for any locomotive in Britain, Scotland, Northern Ireland. Dieselisation was kicked in gear already, and when it was discovered how efficient the diesel locomotives were, the steam locos of the UK would soon become dirty and uncleaned for days. They would also come along for their final steaming, they would be cut up and only a piece of history. Engines would describe the BR as "not caring" about locomotives that served them. And when times that seemed like BR cared, it was usually useless - Engines of British Rail would have "whitewash" applied to them to make the locomotives more visible from a distance, also used to make their drivers able to see better. Now obviously it was white, and engines would run at high speeds, which made them get dirty very quickly rendering them practically useless.

The end of the line for a lot of British locomotives at the time was scrapping. The addition and presence of diesel locomotives in the UK put a massive hit to the gut for the steam engines of the time, with majority of them being wiped out. In fact, around 30 thousand of these metal workhorses were scrapped.

So of course with an issue like this, the last steam locomotives seeing service wouldn't have had much of a graceful ending to their service, and it was no different for Hastings either.

The start of the 60's is when scrapping of steam locomotives was put into action, and locomotives disappeared fast, very fast. Hastings watched as, what seemed  by the day, his friends and family disappear. And of course with this, his last years of service weren't much enjoyable. Engines and himself were often not cleaned for long periods of time, as well as not coming out of his shed a lot near the end of the 60s. Not to mention it was all a massive change, and the problem with that is trains being late, staff changes and other things. This of course ruined it all. Before that, it all ran properly, consistent, perfect. But now BR was in shambles.

Despite the calamity, nothing was as bad as steamies getting removed left right and centre. Hastings could only react to the news of his brothers and friends getting sent to scrapyards, and it was a real mood killer.  Whilst being in the worst times of his life, Hastings managed to stay positive - he was truly a fighter.

Hastings told the press once "Honestly, I'm convinced that I'll never forget about the last years of official BR service, it was lonely, although, I do feel that it wasn't all bad. Diesels have a bad reputation due to Thomas and Friends, but they're no different from us, but they just make engine noises. They did support me, it was still bad though, not having your own kind with you."

Hastings was one of the last locomotives withdrawn, on the 14th of February 1965, just a few months before BR 9F 92220 'Evening Star' was withdrawn, who was the last. And the dawning part; being sent to the scrapyard. Hastings was sent to CF Booth, located in Rotherham. He was there for a very long time. It was dark and depressing, all he was able to do was rust and converse with his friends he made there in the scrapyard.

Accident-wise Hastings was a reasonably safe loco, but they still happened. A good example of this is the time Hastings had developed a wheel flat and simply came off the rails, it was luckily at low speed however he was out of service for a few days.

Lucky for our man, he was able to be saved was bought. But leaving the scrapyard was the best feeling in the world, but the worst. He was bought by Sir Adrian Hardwick F.R.S in 1964 for £4000. Eventually being brought to operation in 1976 in the Severn Railway.

Adrian Hardwick sadly passed away in 1994, Hastings was later bought in 1994 by the A1 Steam Trust, Hastings was later renumbered to 60164.

In present Hastings currently travels around the UK on rail tours and exhibitions, safe to say he's had an eventful life!

## NWR FUTURES

In NWR Futures Hastings is very close to Tornado and they often pair up for mainline excursions; usually if one is at Sodor so is the other.

Whilst on Sodor; Hastings pulls mostly express work however will pull freight. Like Tornado, he is owned by the A1 Steam Trust and pulls his trains on behalf of them.

## Personality:

Hastings, in the present day, is an energetic locomotive who also likes to swear. He hasn't got much fear of anything; considering himself a fighter. He is very energetic a lot of the time, however it's often he will be the opposite.

Hastings also excels at sarcasm and persuasion - a lot of the time Hastings will be able to jokingly persuade someone, but tells them truth right after. Hastings is also very sarcastic, a lot of the time he always uses his sarcasm as part of the many jokes he makes, or when someone asks a dumb question.

Whilst he swears a lot, he can be very well spoken at times given the situation, he also loves to joke around in his spare time. In other words, He think a lot of things as 'jokes'. You can consider him to be the 'comedic relief' of a lot of situations.

## NWR Futures

1. EP3 "Maintaining Sense"
2. EP9: James and Hastings
3. EP45: An A1 Rivalry

## Technical Details:

The LNER Peppercorn A1 was designed by Arthur Peppercorn, mainly for heavy expresses and sometimes even freight work.

The locomotives were designed to cope with the heaviest passenger trains in the post-war period on the East Coast Main Line. Which consisted normally of trains with up to 15 coaches and up to 550 tons. The class used a double chimney system and had a 3-cylinder arrangement. In real life these engines were built from 1948 to 1949

## Trivia:

He is voiced by Harv.

Hastings received a corridor tender in his early to mid years.

Hastings is one of the few characters to openly insult a character in NWR Futures. (EP9.)

## Quotes:

"Wow, I am surprised that your are NOT here late!"

"No James, this isn't the Wild Nor Wester you absolute wholly!"