Arthur Peppercorn
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Arthur Henry Peppercorn (29 January 1889 - 3 March 1951) was the last Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Railway.
In 1905 he started his career as an apprentice with the Great Northern Railway (GNR). He succeeded Edward Thompson on 1 July 1946 but his style of work was more like Thompson's predecessor Sir Nigel Gresley. He finished several projects which were started by Thompson. But most popular were his LNER Peppercorn Class A1 and the LNER Peppercorn Class A2. These were known as some of the best British steam locomotives ever in service. He retired in 1949, a year after nationalisation and foundation of British Railways. Overall he was active as a railway Chief Mechanical Engineer for three and a half years.
One of his famous Pacific locomotives a LNER Peppercorn Class A2, 60532 Blue Peter, is preserved, but none of the LNER Peppercorn Class A1. Because of this the 60163 Tornado is currently being built from new.
