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Henry the Green Engine (Old Shape)

Henry was one of Sir Topham’s rare bad bargains. We only made his acquaintance in 1943, but even after 20 years, he was SO angry at having been “done” that he would never admit who it was who had swindled him. ”I wanted an Atlantic,” he would fume, ”and that -------,---------,---------, sent me that!” and he thumped
a photograph on the table. We never saw Henry, but we talked to men who had crewed him. THEY SAID Henry I had a superficial likeness to Gordon, but that was as far as it went. They remembered hearing rumors of a scandal at Doncaster in 1919 or thereabouts, about the theft of some drawings. Nothing was proved, but it was alleged that a Locomotive Builder with a grudge against Gresley had engineered a "leak" so as to steal a march on him. His spy, however, blundered and took the wrong drawings. The mistake was discovered too late. The locomotive when built, showed so many faults that the builder was glad of chance to unload his "white elephant" on to a desperate customer.
Topham Hatt was having to make do with anything he could No-one was better , pleased than Topham Hatt when the
Killdane accident occurred in 1935 (HGE/26-29). At last, he had an the opportunity of having Henry completely rebuilt at Crewe.