In preservation, the locomotive has also worn the identities of a number of its scrapped classmates, including the first of the A4 class 2509 Silver Link and most recently as 4492 Dominion of New Zealand.

When released to traffic on 18 December 1937, Bittern was wearing the garter blue livery that was standard for LNER A4 Pacific locomotives at that time.

It has sometimes been said that this was to confuse wartime spies, but the generally accepted view is that it was to save scarce materials and labour by reducing the number of letters by half.

It has also been said that the change was to satisfy the vanity of the new Chief Mechanical Engineer, Edward Thompson, who was a product of the former North Eastern Railway, but this claim is widely discounted.

It initially operated from York depot (site of the National Railway Museum today) on various steam charters, but the cracked frames and other symptoms of its long career soon spelled an end to use in mainline service.

In 1995, Silver Link was moved to the Great Central Railway in Loughborough to undergo restoration to working order, but this reached only a partial stage of dismantling.

In 1997, Bittern was bought by Tony Marchington, and based at the Southall Railway Centre alongside his other locomotive which was also being overhauled at the time, LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman.

After that, it completed brake and speed tests on a run to Bristol and made its official return to mainline working on Saturday 1 December 2007 on a charter from London King's Cross to York.

[5] A non-stop run on the East Coast Main Line had not been achieved since the 1968 King's Cross to Edinburgh hauled by 4472 Flying Scotsman, also with a second tender.

During the winter of 2010/2011 the locomotive received maintenance which included the cosmetic renaming and renumbering as scrapped classmate 4492 Dominion of New Zealand (BR number 60013).

[8] Two of the five "Coronation"-named A4s survive in preservation - 4489 Dominion of Canada at the Canadian Railway Museum in Delson, Quebec, and 60009 Union of South Africa, owned by John Cameron and which makes regular appearances on the main line.

[citation needed] In 2014, Bittern was fitted with two commemorative plaques, similar to those worn by sister locomotives Mallard and Sir Nigel Gresley, in honour of its 90 mph runs.

Just prior to the expiry of its mainline certificate on 1 January 2015, the locomotive was moved again to the Mid-Hants Railway, where it ran during 2015 before being withdrawn from service for a major overhaul at LNWR, Crewe.

As of May 2018, Bittern is stored in the queue of engines awaiting workshop space, as Crewe LSL is focused on getting 60532 and 70000 back to mainline service standard.

[11][12] Bittern left Crewe in June 2018 and was transported by road to Margate, where it joined the Locomotive Storage Ltd facility at the former Hornby factory site.

[13] The company intends to create a railway heritage museum called The One:One Collection, which will showcase Bittern and other historic locomotives and vehicles.

In 2013 Hornby released a limited edition of 1,000 models of Bittern as 60019 in Green, with double tenders, as for its non-stop run from London to York in 2009.

[15] This was followed in 2014 by a very limited edition set of the six surviving A4s as 'The Great Goodbye' collection, including Bittern as 4464 in Garter Blue and with full valances.

[16] In 2019 Hornby are releasing limited edition models of engines in the 1:1 collection, including Bittern in LNER Garter Blue with two tenders and gold lettering, as preserved.