LNER Thompson Pacifics

LNER Thompson Pacifics

LNER Thompson A1/1, LNER Thompson A2/1, LNER Thompson A2/2, LNER Thompson A2/3
During World War 2, Edward Thompson wanted to design a new express Pacific to replace Gresley’s aging A3 and A4 Pacifics, which were high maintenance (and due to the LNER apparently running them to failure instead of regular service intervals, in really bad shape in general), but he couldn’t get an all-new engine type approved due to the war. (This didn’t stop other CME’s like Oliver Bulleid of the SR, who preferred the time-honored method of just straight-up lying about his Merchant Navy and Light Pacifics’ intended use – good for him).

Instead, Thompson was forced to experiment on existing locomotives – first, by chopping up Greley’s P2 Mikados and converting them into the mediocre A2/2 class, then by modifying an existing order of Gresley V2s into his similarly underwhelming A2/1 class. He also chopped up the first Gresley A1, Great Northern, and converted it into his A1/1 category – a crime for which some rail fans still haven’t forgiven him >.> Following the end of World War 2, he also built one of his A2/3 class, then promptly retired, leaving the rest to be built by his predecessor, Arthur Peppercorn (who, like Thompson before him, promptly binned as many planned locomotives as he could in order to build his own, far more successful, A1 and A2 Pacifics.)

Thompson Pacifics are generally overlooked and seen as a bit odd looking, but they’re an important development step between the Gresley and Peppercorn eras. And I thought to myself, near, that’ll be a fun little project.

‘Little’ somehow wound up being ~230 variants, but here we are, I guess.

Features:
– LNER A1/1 in 7 liveries
– LNER A2/1 in 7 liveries
– LNER A2/2 in 7 liveries
– LNER A2/3 in 7 liveries
– Liveries include LNER Black, LNER Green, LNER Wartime Black, BR Green, BR Blue and BR Black, as well as Great Northern’s GER tribute livery.
– Multiple Tender options, as well as versions with and without smoke deflectors.
– A total of 224 variants to choose from!
– Full aging and recolour support. Detailed dirt and rust accumulate as the engine ages.
– Engines are sorted in depot menus to reduce purchase menu clutter.
– Small file size and .dds compressed textures, to help with load speed.
– Placeable rail assets (also with lods) allowing placement of the full engine. Aged asset variants also included.
– Moddable engine numbers – edit the number of the train and the number will display on the side of the locomotive.

Specs:
LNER A1/1 4-6-2 (all variants)
Available from 1945 (additional liveries and variants will unlock over time)
Available until 1966
Top Speed: 160 kph
Power: 2200kW
Tractive Effort: 166kN
Weight: 162t

LNER A2/1 4-6-2 (all variants)
Available from 1944 (additional liveries and variants will unlock over time)
Available until 1966
Top Speed: 146 kph
Power: 2250kW
Tractive Effort: 161kN
Weight: 161t

LNER A2/2 4-6-2 (all variants)
Available from 1943 (additional liveries and variants will unlock over time)
Available until 1966
Top Speed: 146 kph
Power: 2350kW
Tractive Effort: 161kN
Weight: 161t

LNER A2/3 4-6-2 (all variants)
Available from 1946 (additional liveries and variants will unlock over time)
Available until 1966
Top Speed: 146 kph
Power: 2500kW
Tractive Effort: 161kN
Weight: 179t

Requests and Feedback
Constructive feedback is always welcome, and I love reading your comments, so if you have any notes on what I can improve, or just want to leave a nice message, by all means, please leave a post below!