Mallard arrived at the SNBR in 2000 and was originally painted in Thomes the tank engine blue. Mallard is a replica of the famours A4 pacific Mallard that
set the world steam record. Like her full size sister, Mallard is 4-6-2 pacific style locomotive, but unlike her full size sister she only has 2 cylinders.
Mallard was build by Mardyke Miniature railways circa 1986 and was only ever test steamed before being placed on shelf in the work shop along with about a dozen other
steam engines of different styles. Purchased privately to run at the SNBR, Mallard has aquired a somewhat serprising cult following amoung members and passengers alike.
she remains the engine that receives the most questions from passengers, normally along the lines of when will the Mallard be running. Mallard unfortunately is a scale sized engine
and as such is only able to pull 2 or 3 carriages around the SNBR circuit, although she does this at a pace similar to the diesels, like her full size sister she is
built for speed. Mallard is often seen double heading with other engines, to allow a longer train to be pulled, and in recent years a North Eastern theme is common with the double
heading of Mallard with Tulyar. Mallard is now painted in the correct LNER garter blue livery, with brass name and builders plate smaller but similar to that of her big sister.
In late 2006 Mallard's boiler was discovered to be leaking and was thus immediately removed from service for repair, returning to service a few months later.
Over the Santa Season(s), Mallard is often used double heading with a diesel to cover for a broken big engine. She is often known during this period as
Santa's Little Helper being she is so much smaller than the bigger engines she is covering. She is also often used during the Santa's double heading the
Santa relief train.
In 2012, Mallard was requested by a production company (Rattling stick) to be used in the Sky Movies 2012 Christmas advert. She was taken to a model maker who made her look more like the full size engine,
and she was heavily used in the filming (appreaing more often in the advert than the full size engine, not that people would know by looking, that was how good the model maker was!). She returned from this
needing some minor work to get back into service, but with loads of new body features that make her look so nice, including, rivets, tender edging, handrails and round buffers. She was also returned with a coach used for the filming, as a gift to the owner. This now means Mallard (who acted as Britten during filming) has a scale coach for
use at the SNBR once alterations to the coach are made. Meaning the SNBR has the full sky advert train!
