LNER Class A4 4488 Union of South Africa

Union of South Africa is a streamlined LNER Class A4 steam locomotive that was built at Doncaster Works and completed on 16 April 1937, with works number 1853. It was first numbered 4488 and became 60009 under British Railways. It had been allocated the name Osprey and painted in Apple Green, but was renamed after the Union of South Africa and repainted in Garter Blue to work The Coronation express. During part of the 1980s and 1990s it carried the name Osprey because of opposition to apartheid, and the original name has since been restored. In November 1963 it was the last steam locomotive to be overhauled at Doncaster Works while still in service. It is one of six surviving A4s; its mainline certification expired in April 2020 and a cracked boiler tube forced its early retirement from running at the East Lancashire Railway.