Taking the honours for the best locomotive at the Harrogate show in 2010 was a model of a rare and interesting model, well executed by J Dalton. It was awarded the Myford Shield.

This Ivatt-rebuilt Stirling Single represents the penultimate development of single drive wheeled locomotives. Patrick Stirling designed his original single in 1870 after he moved to the Great Northern Railway in 1866. At that time new engines were required for the many new routes that were still being built. Stirling built his single engines for speed and power, which could handle the continuous gradients on the main London to York GNR line, and to compete against the Midland Railway and L&NWR in the ‘Races to the North’.

A product of these races were the famous Stirling Singles. These were elegant 4-2-2 engines with eight-foot driving wheels, and domeless boilers. These popular engines regularly set speed records in the races of 1888 and 1895. None survived into regular LNER stock, although Stirling Single No.1 is now a part of the National Collection at the National Railway Museum in York.

Drawings and castings for a 5in. gauge locomotive are supplied by Reeves 2000. His was designed by David Piddington from J Scarth’s original drawings.

After taking over Ivatt rebuilt the Stirling Singles with larger boilers and cylinders. He eventually went on to produce a new class of singles – the last to be made. They had similar front ends to the Stirling singles (and shared their driving wheel size), but had bigger boilers. They were classified as A4. All were withdrawn in 1917.