My son met Anthony at locomotion last week. His passion for the project was clearly on show and loves that people are watching these videos and then being inspired to visit all their sites. Highly recommend anyone who hasnt been, to visit all their museum sites and see these engines in person AND maybe stumble across all the hosts of these videos and share your appreciation for them in person!

Anthony, I'm a relative newcomer to this series but the work that you and your colleagues do in putting together the videos is superb. Educative and hugely watchable, there can scarcely be a better combination. Sincere thanks.

Beautiful engineering. Truly beautiful to behold.

I was initially raised in Kingskerswell between Newton Abbot and Torquay alongside the Torbay line. I loved the GWR house style. Imagine my shock when we moved to Poole when I was 10 years old and was confronted by the mess of loco styles that defined the Southern!

Steam locos are so fascinatingly complicated to operate, and vary so much.

Churchward's Saint Class was described by OS Nock as the "keystone in the arch" and was arguably the most important engine built in Britain as it was such a huge leap forward in loco development. Churchward was interested in "balance" and the avoidance of "hammer blow" to avoid track damage that a two cylinder engine like the Saint might cause and that was also why he was interested in those four cylinder French locos that were bought. Churchward's engines were considered ugly when introduced and they were beautified by Holcroft- with the curves instead of the previous drop ends and these curves debuted on the Star. Both the Saint and the Star had the same boiler which had very high pressure and very high degree of ( for the time) superheating- and that was revolutionary in Britain back then. Arguably, the Star was complicated and maybe developing the Saint further would have made sense. Clearly, the Star was the start of a family of successful engines that also extended to the LMS when Stanier left the GWR for that railway. During World War One the brass beading was removed from the splashers and for some reason this was not replaced when the engine was restored for display- although the later "elbow" steam pipes were removed as they were a later addition. The Saint really was the engine that brought the Great Western into the 20th century- not the Star and Stanier's Black 5 class- a very close but mixed traffic derivative of the Saint hauled Britain's last steam train in August 1968 which sums up the reality of the importance of the Saint class.

I visited the museum in April with my family, a really good day out and i do remember Load Star, Many thanks , Sisaket Thailand.

It would be great to see a view of the running gear from an inspection pit!

I really appreciate this top drawer tour of the Star class. Thanks so very much.

Fascinating! Thankyou!

Very well made video as per usual , now Cheltenham is back please keep her in as last ran BR green ,also any chance one day of seeing Mallard in as last ran BR green even if for a year only

A wonderful engine and video , well done team

Thanks Anthony for another great video

Great insight into a great engine.Thank you for these videos.

I'd never realised what the condenser in the cab roof did for the displacement lubricator. I'd made a wild guess that it was for heating - which made zero sense with the firebox in front! Thank you for that..

Proper engineering.

Another fantastic video that is incredibly well presented. I know road steam isn’t what the national rail museum is about but it would be interesting to see the difference between the relative simplicity of say a Burrell traction engine and the complex rail locos done in the curator with a camera series.

Fascinating! Thank you very much!

It’s interesting to see the differences between a GWR and LNER/LMS locomotive, great video

Excellent tutorial, Doctor Coulls. As a slight aside, the engineer Harold Holcroft was the man responsible for the GWR 'house' style. He later went on to work with Sir Nigel Gresley in developing the valve gear for locomotives, such as Flying Scotsman & Mallard.

Nice to see LNTN get a mention!

Imagine if the chronology had been slightly different....if Churchward had taken charge slightly later. Suppose that he had got the GWR to buy deGlehn / du Bousquet 4-6-0s instead of Atlantics. Compounds that could climb Dainton with a decent load. Could have totally changed the direction of British locomotive development.

An excellent and informative video of my favourite NRM locomotive. Would love to see an additional video on the exhaust steam injector and maybe a GWR Churchward combined vacuum, ejector and steam brake (City of Truro might have one as Lode Star has a separate vacuum brake and ejector with no steam brake) but understand they’d be omitted for being very technical for general viewing!

I wonder why Swindon didn't re-fit brass beadings to the splashers when preparing it for display in 1962? They removed the outside steam pipes and fitted a tall safety valve casing to present a pre WW1 appearance.

Will we be getting a video on the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Class 5? That’s one of my favourite locos at York, and I love seeing it when I the NRM. Lode Star is ok too, but I’m more partial to other pre-grouping locos, like what they have in the station hall (any idea when that will be reopening?).

One of the class members is 4002 “Evening Star” the locomotive built before Lode Star

As an American who may never visit the UK due to a fear of flying, I love this series. Could y’all review the Chinese 4-8-4 sometime?

Great video, I was wondering how the inner cylinders were connected to the drive wheels?

I'm glad I never had to work on one but its a beautiful machine. Elegant as were all its followers. Nice explanations .:I believe lode' is an old Norse word meaning 'the north' or 'Pole' star. ?-)

Can we see a video on the beautiful Livingston Thompson. To represent the Narrow Gauge audience??

For the next Curator with a camera can you please do GNR (Great northern railway sterling single no1

I honestly never understood why these locomotives had such a short cab, in a country well known for its bad weather

It looks like a saint locomotive

Are the drives for the engines on each side diametrically opposed, or quartered?

Lode Star's trailing pair of driving wheels are of a different (later) pattern to the leading and middle pair. The trailing wheels are from the "Castle" class with webbing reinforcement and the crankpin is between the spokes, whereas the other four driving wheels have the crankpin in line with the spoke and have no webbing. It's likely the trailing pair were swapped in when Lode Star was being cosmetically restored following withdrawal. Closer examination of the number stampings on the wheel hubs should show which engine previously had the trailing pair.

10:44 Hang on, isn’t that duke of Gloucester cab on the ground?

Oh, so this has an inverse Gresley conjugated valve gear! Also question I’ve had for a long time, why do most brake handles have the drilled holes in them?

Any chance of this loco steaming again?

What's above the pit now that lode star has moved?

A worthwhile enhancment would be to replace corks with a proper closure with a hinged cap with projecting lug which could be opened with the spout of the oil can. This is a standard fitment on Swedish steam locos.

Where is the brass splasher beading??

As for steaming certain locomotives again there are some that are out of the question now. Even though they did get revived after the end of BR steam in 1968. The GNR 'Single', the Midland 'Compound'. You can add 'Green Arrow' and Lode Star too. The GNR loco has a very poor firebox & the driving wheel tyre is at scrapping thickness,. 'Green Arrow' still has its original cylinder block, which is now badly cracked. Lode Star looks to have very thin tyres all round & who knows about the state of the boiler? I don't suppose it has been surveyed. As for 'Evening Star'... I rode behind it on the Scarborough Spa Express which was many years ago. The locomotive is the 3rd newest steam locomotive in Britain & was never thrashed on freight trains, which was what it was designed for. On the modern railway a speed limit may apply on account of it having smaller driving wheels, but it definitely has the low-down grunt.

Is all that gleaming steel chromium alloy? What kept these parts from rusting?

What’s her boiler like?

The directors asked Churchward why his locomotive cost twice as much as those of one of their competitors. His retort was that one of his would pull two of theirs backwards.

There appears to be a tap on the lower left smokebox front... what might it used for...?

Pleaee cover Cheltenham, we already miss her at the watercress

I don't know why the narrator uses G.J. Churchward's name as though he was in the dock, accused of a crime. If you see the nameplate of the 4073 class named after him, it is as I have used it here. The Directors and everyone else on the GWR referred to him as Mr. Churchward. They do the same with Brunel and if you look at the Tamar Bridge with his name on it, it is I.K. Brunel.

Nice to know about Lode Star wonder if she will ever steam again

It’s kinda surprising they didn’t put the valve gear on the outside , with bell cranks driving the inside cylinders, reversing the layout.

If there was no dome, how did they get steam out without risk of water coming out too ?

Why would it float

But will it ever run again?

I take it the "king" class was developed from this ?

Why were some railways right- hand drive and others left-hand drive ... why not standardize driver position like they standardized the track gauge? Any advantages to left-hand verse right-hand positions?

George Jackson Churchward not Churchwood

Ditching Brussels gauge was a mistake but not as bad as new Zealand going for a very narrow gauge.

One loco that should be restored to steam.

Never trust Domeless engines said a voice.

Why is it looking so dirty and scruffy?. I was lucky enough to being allowed to stand on the footplate, 40 years ago on a quiet morning in the old Swindon museum. I also had a photo of my father and his father(who was a GW driver) standing next to the cab of Lode Star at about 1930 when they were on their way to Portsmouth, on holiday. but my father, who was 11 at the time didnt know where the photo was taken.

Difficult to hear the speaker through the - really annoying - music.

Wooo GWR by the dude who grew up on GWR grounds.