BR standard class 7 70000 Britannia, photographed here on
a visit to the Nene Valley Railway, Peterborough, on 19 August 1996.
Britannia was built at Crewe, completed on 2 January
1951. She was the first British Railways standard locomotive to be built and
the first of 55 locomotives of the Britannia class. The locomotive was named at
a ceremony at Marylebone Station by the then Minister for Transport Alfred
Barnes on 30 January 1951.
The BR Locomotive Naming Committee were determined not to
use names already in use on other locomotives. They tried to observe this by
not selecting the name Britannia for use on 70000 because it was already in use
on one of the ex-LMS Jubilee Class locomotives, but Robert Riddles overruled
them and the Jubilee had to be renamed.
Britannia was initially based at Stratford (30A) in order
to work East Anglian expresses to Norwich and Great Yarmouth, but was also
particularly associated with the Hook Continental boat train to Harwich.
Subsequently, the loco was based at Norwich Thorpe (w/e 31 January 1959) and March
(June 1961) before spending the remainder of her career on the London Midland
Region Willesden (1A) (w/e 30 March 1963), Crewe North (5A) (w/e 25 May 1963), Crewe
South (5B) (w/e 19 May 1965) and finally Newton Heath (9D) (w/e 5 March 1966)
from where she was withdrawn w/e 28 May 1966
