The Fireman on A4 Silver Link – 27th September 1935

[Ninja72]

My son found this site and I thought the following information would be of interest to you.
I am the youngest daughter of John Hewlett Luty (Jack)
My Dad was a fireman, a driver, an inspector and then a foreman at Kings Cross locomotive
sheds and then, when the sheds were shut he worked at the station which he didn't
like. He was offered early retirement when the sheds closed but it would have left
him short on his pension so he stayed until he was 65 in 1967.
He was born 29th May 1902 and died 2nd April 1982 (the day the Falklands War was
declared) in Ilford, Essex just before he would have been 80. I was born in 1947 when
Dad was 45.
Of his family, he used to say their were 11 of them but I only knew Uncle Tom (Norma's
Dad), Uncle George, Aunt Lottie, Aunt Annie, Aunt Nellie, Aunt Cath and knew of an
Aunt Alice who I never met. My Dad's parents had both died by the time I was born
but my Dad said their eldest child (I think he was Arthur) died from tetanus at the
age of 16 and his mother never got over it.
My Dad's middle name, Hewlett, was his mother's maiden name.
I have copies of the following;
whole front page of the Daily Sketch dated Saturday 28th September 1935 and an
article in the London & North Eastern Railway Magazine both about the 27th
September run.
a copy of an article in The Star dated 18th February 1935 by O.S. Nock entitled
'Riding on the footplate' regarding the run of the Royal Lancer from Kings Cross
to Newcastle, Driver A.J. Taylor, Fireman J. Luty
a page from The Chronicle dated Thursday 7th January 1937 about the first run
of Golden Eagle from Kings Cross to Newcastle, Driver T. Ellis and fireman J. Luty

I hope the above may be of interest to you. It is wonderful to think my lovely Dad
is still remembered.

I'm sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but I found this whilst searching for information about Jack Luty and thought I'd respond.

I'm the Great Granddaughter of Annie Luty. My mum has told me about family legend, where we had someone who was the fire man on the Flying Scotsman. The tale had got a little twisted, in that we thought that Jack was on the Flying Scotsman when the record was set, instead it was the Silver Link.

It seems that most of the family, has at one time or another, been 'on the railway' as my granddad, Annie's son, also worked on the trains.

I loved seeing the photo's of Jack, of which btw, he is the spit of my Great Gran. I couldn't believe how similar they looked. And also the news articles. My husband is a graphic designer for the company who produces The Railway Magazine. He was very interested in the photo's and news articles that are posted on here about Jack.

Thanks again, it was very interesting learning about Jack and also other family members.

[KX6465]

I am absolutely amazzed by what this site holds!

I've only just joined but I've done a few posts and was just browsing the site and came across this.

I did know the history of Jack Luty and do indeed remember him from my days at KX.

As someone has said in another post elswhere on here whenever he came into the messroom on platform 10 it would always quieten down.

Most of the the other running forman would send you home after about six hours if there was not much happening and there was plenty of passed fireman and passed cleaners on duty. Not with Jack Luty, he always kept you for your full 8 hours.

I often wondered what happened to him as he was a well respected figure and it was especially good to see the picture of him at KX, thats exactly as I remember him.

Once again this forum has become a time machine for me, long may it continue!

[Hornby Dublo]

Will 60019 be reliverd and valanced for the occaiseion or at least the NRM build a new one

[sandwhich]

Yes I remember Jack Luty very well at Top Shed and at Kings Cross station, he was a man that you did not cross, but I always found him fair if you got on with your job without fuss. It would seem that he climbed the ladder fairly quickly for a young man in those far off days of the 1930/40s and was resented because of this, but that was nothing new and to a certain extent was still there when I retired a couple of years ago. Dont complain about other people doing a job that you dont want to do was what I used to say and i still beleive that.

[janetann]

I was sent this site by my daughter who thought l,d be interested because Jack Luty was my Great Uncle (my gran,s brother),l was always under the impression that Jack was the fireman on the Flying Scotsman when it broke the speed limit from London to Edinburgh and from other posts so do other members of the family(see Norma,s letter).but from reading letters posted here it seems thats not true but that he was fireman on the Silver Link( which is still a famous event) I was very interested to read notes from family members whom lve not met since l was a child(l,m now aged 60yrs).my father was also a steam engine driver then a diesel driver before being made running foreman at his local depot (shirebrook west)it seems it was a family tradition to work on the railways as also his father ,brother and uncle Tom (Norma,s dad)also worked
for British Rail ,l would be really interested to hear from other members of the Luty family,it would be lovely to catch up on news

[sandwhich]

Another thing about Silver Link and its fireman Jack Luty comes to mind. This engine as is known was the first A4 Pacific to come off the production lines in 1935 and strangely it was the first A4 to be withdrawn from service on December 30th 1962 and was placed at the back of the main line shed. Not long afterwards it was steamed up for its last run light engine to Doncaster. Jack Luty was on duty that day and came out of his office to watch as it left the shed for the last time. I wonder what his thoughts were on this day.

[silverfox]

Sandwich,

Had a bit of grit in my eye reading that

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Had heard that Silver Links was held in Doncaster works for a while, to see if it would be preserved/or someone would buy it, didn't happen did it...............what a waste of a historic engine. ( I know other A4's were, but!)

Damn coal-dust gets everywhere

manna

[markindurham]

Didn't Billy Butlin try to buy her, but the ER high hiedyins wanted silly money, so the deal fell through & he got another LMS Pacific instead?

Mark

[jwealleans]

I've just bought Richard Hardy's latest book and there are a few pictures featuring Inspector Jack Luty.

One of my dad as well, but that would be of less interest to the Luty family.

[brsince78]

..... Richard Hardy's latest book .....

Ordered!

[brownie]

I ordered Richard Hardy's book 'A Life on the Lines' expecting to see photos of my dad
Jack Luty. However there are none - On page 135 there are two 'photos of my lovely
Uncle Tom, my dad's brother, both of which are listed as being of my dad. I can assure
you they are not and proof, if proof were needed, my Uncle Tom smoked a pipe and my
dad never smoked and you can just make out the pipe in the top picture.

[brownie]

I am the son-in-law of Jack Luty and I can see how Jack Luty was mistakenly thought to have done the speed run on the Flying Scotsman.
As you can see from the photograph he is shown on an engine with the Flying Scotsman name plate.
But note the number of the engine, it is 4476 not 4472.
Many engines were used on the Flying Scotsman run and they all had different names.
The 4472 was named the 'Flying Scotsman' and the 4476 was named the 'Royal Lancer.'
The name plate on the front of the engine obviously means that it was doing the Flying Scotsman run
at that particular time.
I don't think that people know this. Because the name plate says Flying Scotsman, they assume that this is the name of the engine.
This is my understanding of the situation but I am not a railwayman. If anyone knows any
different perhaps they would inform us.

[Sharon.baker]

That is very interesting. I understand that the men on the footplate had to work well as a team but I didn't realise that they remained together over long periods. Arthur Taylor and Jack Luty were both on the Royal Lancer. does anyone know how long they worked together? I recently visited Arthur Taylor's grave in Weldon, Northamptonshire. He was widowed in 1939 and laid to rest with his wife 20 years later in the churchyard of the pretty village where she was born. The wording on the grave was inlaid originally but is now becoming difficult to read. It is obvious that he was greatly loved and admired by his family and it is sad to see that the grave could become unrecognisable. As one of his great grand children I really should find out if anything can be done to restore the headstone to a condition where it can be recognised for years to come.

[cambois]

I restored my mothers family gravestones - so I suggest your first contact would be the church - who will tell you who the local monumental masons are - although I do not imagine they will recommend one in particular. But you might become responsible for ongoing maintenance - I did and it cost me a good few pounds in the name of public safety

Good luck I hope it works out