 O. S. Nock describes it as ‘the most disappointing and tactless act in his short and stormy career as CME,’ and Allen stated ‘he turned it into a machine of such hideous appearance as might well have made its designer turn in his grave.’ It is known that the Chief Draughtsman and a number of high up officials within the LNER unsuccessfully tried to deter Thompson from rebuilding this particular engine.The rebuilt locomotive appeared in traffic in September 1945 and was classified A1 and the remaining sixteen locomotives of Gresley’s A1 class were re-classified A10.Originally, the plan was to rebuild all of these to the new design but this never occurred.