Well it was a valiant effort! Designed as a ‘one size fits all’, the BR designs of steam locomotives incorporated all that was seen as ‘best practice’ of the Big Four railway companies that formed British Railways at Nationalisation. When the class leader, No 70000 Britannia, emerged from Crewe Works early in 1951 few people would have imagined that it would have a service life of just over 15 years and that one of the class would share the working of the last rail tour marking the end of standard gauge steam on the main line network. Really appreciated by the footplate crews on the Great Eastern section of the Eastern Region – and equally disliked by Western Region crews – the ‘Britannias’, and like the rest of the Standard designs, were victims of the run down of BR steam, never really being given the chance to prove themselves and being withdrawn well before their intended life span. This book follows the ‘Britannia’ class around the Regions from its introduction in 1951 to final withdrawal in 1968.