Richard is a Oliver Bulleid-designed Merchant Navy 4-6-2 Light Pacific, built in 1942 as 21C10 “Blue Star.” He worked on the Southern Railway, later absorbed into British Railways in 1948, and was rebuilt in 1956 with a more conventional body, ditching the old ‘air-smoothed’ streamlining seen on other Bulleid Pacifics. He was retired in 1966, and was to be scrapped, but sat in his scrapyard until 1969, when he was bought by the NWR. By then, he had seen several engines meet their end in front of him, which gave him PTSD, and when he was repaired, and given a red paint scheme similar to James, much to the latter’s anger. He pulls the Wild Nor’Wester in a supplement for Gordon, who doesn’t exactly trust him with pulling his express.
