The LNER Class A4: The Fastest Steam Locomotive Ever
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- Опубліковано 16 кві 2024
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Suggestion: the Milwaukee Road “Class A” streamliners, and/or the MILW F7. Not nearly as many of these built as the A4, unfortunately, but they did break records at the time, and they’re also just COOL looking.
@@jimtalbott9535 weren't these faster than Mallard too? Lol
@@wesw9586 Possibly, but unofficially. The Milwaukee Road never did an all-out speed test with a dynamometer car. The
Atlantics and Hudson/Baltics that pulled the Hiawatha were said to have reached or exceeded their two mile a minute design speed during schedule setting runs, but most American steam roads in the thirties weren't that concerned about top speed bragging rights, just what was practical in regular service. The Hiawathas WERE the fasted REGULAR SCHEDULED steam trains anywhere though.
The second fastest steam locomotive after the Mallard, at least officially, was the German 05 class, It reached just under 125mph in 1936, The train included a dynamometer car.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍🇺🇸
Excelent story-telling as usual, would love to hear your take on Union Pacific's 4014 'Big Boy',. which is still in service, both as a tourist train, and sent out to rescue stalled Diesel-Electric frieght services.
The A4 is such a source of national pride that, even to this very day, 92% of all reams of printer paper sold in Britain are named after it.
This is a joke or actually real reason
@johnbrooks6243 It's 100% true. You're free to look it up for yourself, but why do you think that the shop where you traditionally bought the paper from was called a Stationery shop? Just coincidence?? They were originally called Shed shops, after the engine sheds which housed the locos when they weren't in use, but it caused a bit of confusion with garden centres and the British laws at the time, which demanded that all privately owned back gardens had a garden shed to allow for potting, fettling and tool storage.
You have to understand, of course, that it was a very different societal attitude back then. The British Empire, though in decline at that point, was still very much a global power with a global influence. An empire that had been built on the steam powered British invention of the Industrial Revolution and the global reach of the also British invented automatic printing press. It was Britain too who first came up with the notion of selling bread and milk through newsagents, popularising a global trend of reading the morning newspaper with a cup of tea and some toast and jam. Marmalade was popular too, but some people weren't keen on the bits in it. I digress.
Of course, the milk and bread would come in locally to the newsagents from the various farms and bakeries in the surrounding area and you'd have all day to faff around getting the evening edition of the papers out. But to get the morning edition of the paper from the printing presses of Fleet Street in London and up to the newsagents of Glasgow no later than 0530 in the morning, when the milkmen and bread vans of Great Britain were already criss-crossing the towns and villages of the country making their deliveries and the paperboys were warming their pushbikes up in preperation for the morning rounds, it took something a bit special. Something fast. Something with the power, range and reliability of Nigel Gresley's A4.
With the A4 on the job, it was, for first time in mankind's history, possible to read the very same newspaper article at one end of the country with your breakfast, as it were at the other end of the country. You simply can not understate just how much of a revolution in media coverage and broadcasting things and stuff to the masses this was. It was the high speed, fibre optic broadband network of its day! Some of the very first stories in the papers that had been delivered hot off the London presses to the top of the Scottish Highlands were ironically about the hysteria and national jubilation of achieving such a thing leading to some housewives to pass out in disbelief when they came downstairs to find that morning paper was already sat there on the floor, though I personally think that those stories were just a kind of early form of some proto-clickbait thing for newspapers.
Still, that doesn't detract from the fact that the A4 locos were and still are something we Brits hold in as high regard and pride as things like Concorde, the Spitfire, Harrier jump jets, the Mini and Vimto. The A4 is just that much of a national icon and treasure to us and it was only right that its name is still honoured on the most used paper of the kingdom. Paper which, just like the internet we know today, was used to bring honest, reliable news and information that everybody could trust to the masses.
As long as there is a need to print paper, the history and impact that the A4 had on delivering the papers from the printing presses will be remembered with pride here every time we reload the copier. Now, in all the workplaces and schools the length and bredth, how many countless times a day do you think that the national photocopier fleets are reloaded?
No sir, honouring that sleek, streamlined, beautiful, grand old powerhouse of our country's proud history and paying tribute to the effect it had on the press media by adorning our most commonly used size of printer paper sleeves with the A4's name is no joke!
@@bigal3055 Amen to that! Love a good bit of British trivia. 😍
@Zgurkogel It's a rich and layered history, full of fascinating trivia. For example, did you know that before the A4 came along, it was impossible for fish and chip shops any further north than Wigan to open for lunch?
The newspapers would arrive so late that far north that people would still be reading them well into early afternoon, leaving the chippies with nothing to wrap lunch orders up in until tea time. Once the A4 saw to it that the papers would be there in the early morning though and that everyone had read them by the time the morning tea break was over, they could open for lunch too and people could now enjoy some fish and chips twice a day. The effect on the fish and chip industry was profound and the explosion in demand for newspapers was so dramatic that entire news corporations, which still operate to this very day, were founded on the printing of papers that weren't for readership, but would instead be sent by the millions straight to the nation's chippies every single day just to satisfy the insatiable appetite the chippy boom created for a cheap, absorbant wrapping material with good thermal insulation qualities.
The A4 paper size is based on a German standard (DIN 476) published in 1922.
My father was an engineer for the Milwaukee Railroad for about 20 years. I rode with him on "Little Joe" EF-4 as a child. The first engine my father operated was the famous "Hiawatha" an American Locomotive Company 4-4-2 "Atlantic" steam locomotive which consistently traveled at over 100 miles per hour.
As a little lad in the early 60’s, I remember standing, at ground level, right next to the driving wheels of an A4, in Hartlepool station, just off the end of the platform. So, so quiet until she started her roll, lost traction and, accompanied by massive and dramatic wheel spin, finally bit the rails and set off amidst clouds of steam and a crescendo of mechanical bliss. Never to be forgotten.
'kicking in his door and squeezing one out in his cornflakes' Bloody poetry......cheers.
The Class 55 "Deltics" had, and still have a large following over 40 years after their retirement from British Rail. Perhaps you might consider a programme about the legendary "Deltics".
I'd definitely watch it! They were the most powerful diesels in the world when they were introduced.
Oh yes - years ago I used to get the Liverpool to Newcastle jumping on a Manchester Piccadilly-only one 10 mile stop to home but I’d get as close to the engine as possible 2 stroke diesel - one of the best sounds in the world when under load - although not a train buff I still get the odd YT feed with Deltics running - Simon make it happen.
@@davidpinnington213 Well, as it had 2 Napier Deltic engines, you had double the pleasure! I would be surprised if the Deltics did bit have the largest fan base of any early UK diesel type. With the possible exception of the class 37.
As a young kid I was fond of the Deltic in the 70's, they were beasts and watching and hearing one approach was wonderfully scary.
Deltic 🗿🙌
Calling the Deltic "soulless" is practically fighting talk in these parts ;)
Great video nonetheless, although I think the most important part of the A4's streamlining was the work done on the internal gas flow.
I also think it is one of those nice historical coincidences that Gresley and Ettore Bugatti were friends and Bugatti's work influenced the shape of the A4. While Bugatti's great automotive Rival, W.O. Bentley served his apprenticeship at the Great Eastern Railway and would have been there (if I remember correctly) while Gresley was Chief Mechanical Engineer.
I would argue that the class 55 replacements for the A4s (the Deltics) did inspire a following of their own.
Same can definitely be said for the Deltics eventual replacement, the HSTs.
Those A4's... they look fast just standing still. Beautiful machines, just amazing looking and a wonderful legacy that Sir Nigel left to the nation.
There is something so imposing about this style of steam loco. They are pure muscle.
Pure elegant muscle
I mean, no.... Small American stram locomotives are more powerful than an A4.
@@ThePTBRULES Im pretty sure Shay steam engines with their outside gears were more powerful, just not meant for speed but for pulling and grades.
One small correction. Gresley did not become CME of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1911, it was the Great Northern Railway and the L&YR was amalgamated into the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway upon the Grouping Act in 1923 and not the London and North Eastern Railway.
Also the "K4" seen at 7:55 is the Pennsylvania Railroad's K4 class 4-6-2 Pacifics which is a very different beast to the LNER's K4 class 2-6-0 moguls.
Well actually, i can hear your adenoids.
@@nudenut1916the heck is that supposed to mean
this guy trains
@@nudenut1916😆
yeahh, from that point of wiew they might not have done as much research as they should have.
Gres-ley not Greas-ley and Granth-am not Grant-ham. Heard this so many times as a boy as my mothers father was a fireman and later during the war, an Engineer (Driver), until he lost his arm in the fifties. I don't believe he ever drove the Mallard but we have photographs of him at the controls of A4's, the Silver Fox and Bittern.
Went to 'The National Railway Museum' a couple of years ago to try and find out more? Quite difficult as I had to use ultra slow 'Vista' on their computers and half of the 'microfishe' were missing!
Just commented the same and a couple more.
@@tonys1636 yeah me too.
Yep !! Was a train nerd in my teens. Admittedly diesel was what i chased. But according to what my mother told me, many years ago. she used to take me to our local railway to watch the steam engines pass by. I'm in my early 60's now by the way.
In a previous video Simon said “Greas-ley” too
@@tonys1636 This presenter seems to have a habit of mis-pronouncing lots of things. If he didn't know these things from childhood, a bit of research would have helped.
PS He should probably explain what a "coefficiency" is. e.g. Coefficiency of drag or coefficiency of friction. In science, it's known as a "coefficient".
Mallard!!!!!!!!
My childhood obsession is being covered.
The class 55 Deltics are far from soulless, they too have a storied history and an interesting design thats gained them a sizable fanbase. The Deltic prototype was also a very special looking locomotive, adopting what I would personally describe as a more "American" styling compared to other BR locomotives.
I'd be interested in seeing an episode on the Deltics, or even an episode covering the whole push to Diesel traction that BR took. Its an interesting story that saw many designs and ideas come into play across the rail network.
12:09 - that is the LMS route, not the LNER route, which goes via Peterborough / York / Newcastle, and if they call at Glasgow, they do so after Edinburgh.
It is worth noting that electric trains came before diesel. They were the future, and diesel was considered a low-cost substitute for lines that didn't have enough traffic to justify electrification. We do also hold the world record for the world's fastest diesel with the BR Class 43 (Intercity 125).
At 7:55, a picture of Pennsylvanian Railroad K4 No. 3863 is shown at the top left. This is not a locomotive Gresley designed. He did design the LNER Class K4 though.
Fun fact-the Mallard is the fastest *recorded* steam locomotive. It is heavily suspected that a handful of American Steam Locomotives, including Pennsylvania railriad's T1s, were faster, but official times were never recorded. I suspect N&W J Class and Milwaukee's F7s may also have been able to do it.
Also the Borsig DRG series 05
Dont forget about the oh so famous NYC Hudsons (talking about the streamlined one, with scullin drivers)
The PRR T1 could still blow the record out of the water. There is a nonprofit organization working on building a new one built to the same specifications as the original ones. Some things just aren't cost effective or practical to do today, such as casting the frame. It would cost millions to have patterns and molds made, not to mention there are very few facilities left capable of pouring that much metal all at once. So, they've opted to weld plate steel together. Which is stronger and less likely to have defects than cast-iron.
There were stories of them hitting 140 mph, but it was never official. With modern lubricant technology, metallurgy, and welded track, it's designed 140+ should be possible.
@@pohldriver I hope that happens although what goes against the locomotive is its size and weight so it won't be easy.......
@pohldriver I'm not sure this would definitively prove the T1 was faster. If successful it will prove that people can build a steam train faster in 2024 than they could in 1934. I mean even leaving aside it's being made using modern equipment it's also going to go for the speed record on a test track so they can run it as many times as they want. The speed records in the golden age of steam happened on mainlines and they usually only had 1 shot to get them.
The map shown of the line where the A4 apparently started service shown in the video is actually the line where the concurrent LMS Coronation did service. It is the West Coast Main Line which belonged to the LMS in the Grouping years.
The LNER operated the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York and Newcastle and that's where the A4s operated at their introduction.
Also, the main reason for Gresley to build the A4 was the race to the North in the first place, a race for having the fastest service between London and Scotland that took up pace after an agreement on limiting train speeds ended in 1932.
The Grouping also played a role in this as from then on the LNER owned the full ECML to Edinburgh and the LMS the WCML to Glasgow respectively. The fastest train of the LNER, the Flying Scotsman, had no intermediate stops on its 393 mile journey.
Before the grouping trains on these routes would pass over the territory of 2 or more companies.
The competition with the Germans was not so much with the SVT 877 but with their attempt at building the fastest steam locomotive, the Baureihe 05, a large Hudson type locomotive of which due to the outbreak of war only 3 would be built, 05 002 reached 124,5 mph after which Mallard did her final record setting high speed run at 126 mph.
And no, the Deltic isn't a soulless machine but a unique locomotive with the most complex diesel engines ever in a locomotive, once the most powerful single unit diesel locomotive and with a great share of followers of the also 6 preserved series deliveries, and the prototype DP1 is also preserved.
I love train people.
The whole thing is a mess. Apparently the Lancashire and Yorkshire became a part of the LNER too and Gresley never moved to the Great Northern Railway, and there, designed the precursor of the A1 Pacifics, of which the Flying Scotsman is a survivor, namely 'The Great Northern'.
Well Basically ! THE HELL OF A MESS ! RAN THROUGH THE CENTRAL MIDLANDS !Where as THE LNER ! WOULD ALWAYS BE ITS MAIN COMPETITOR ! Out along the Coast ! IM ALWAYS MAD ! AT WHAT STAINIER DID ! TO ROBERT WHITELEGS LOCOMOTIVES ! I WILL NEVER EVER FORGIVE HIM ! FOR THAT !
Now you have to do a video on the Class 55 Deltics
Three cylinders were a nightmare. The Union Pacific 9000 class famously had them and they were not popular with UP mechanics. Imagine what access to a third set of running gear was like on those things. Two smoke stacks were not always necessary. N&W used a wafer in a few of its locomotives that enabled a seal to be maintained around expelled steam through a single large stack to create draft. The LNER may have been quick, but the 4-8-4 N&W J class was not much slower and had a lot more power. That was much about a huge lagged fire box sitting over a four wheeled truck. 70" drivers, roller bearings, and connecting rods going to the second drivers rather than the third also helped. Some of the 4-6-2 locomotives used in the states were no slouches either when it came to speed. If all conditions were equal, the Milwaukee Road's Hiawatha class which had been clocked at over 112 mph may have kept up with the LNER locomotive.
I live next the Oregon Rail Heritage Center that has four working steam locomotive, two of which are massive 4-8-4 passenger locomotives; Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 and the absolutely beautiful Southern Pacific 4449 . While not as fast as the A4s they are no less impressive, seeing them run is like seeing some rare wild animal up close, they feel alive, they are simply amazing.
I saw and rode on the Sir Nigel Gresley in around 1972 at a place called Herrington in the North East of England, I understand they (the workshop) got it working again,
What a machine.
I was able to take it in the NYMR 10 years ago. It was pretty cool!
Rode it last year on the Nene Valley railway, kinda had to given it basically runs past my house.
Beautiful and magnificent locomotive.
To call the Deltics soulless is to be deemed a heathen
Im pretty sure he just reads, its his editors who place teh words and emotions
Can't say I've ever been a class 55 fan personally. However as soon as he said that I had visions of a western movie when the outlaw gunman strides into the bar and everyone immediately dives for cover!
Even I know those are fightin' words!
I am a Presbyterian, and I say it looks like a stick of butter.
I don't mean to nab at 7:55's K4 picture, however that is a picture of the Baldwin/Altoona built American K4 of the Pennsylvania RR. But yes, there IS an English-built K4 that Sir Nigel Gresley designed :)
Love this homage to the A4, despite the persistent mispronunciation of Sir Nigel Gresley as Sir Nigel Greesley, although I also know how little Mr Whistler cares about comments on mispronunciations! Always loved steam engines and the LNER A4 Pacific class in particular and so getting to see them all (and have a brief ride behind Bittern in steam) in February 2014 when the Great Gathering moved from the main National Railway Museum site in York to their Locomotion site at Shildon, Co. Durham was awesome.
1:28 that "BAM!" was personal 😂
Make it one second earlier
@@LyricClock-fo8he changed it
@@Bald_Zeus swee
Steam traaaains. Need more videos about these, there's quite a few of them. :D
While I did enjoy this video overall, I do have a couple nit-picks regarding some of the images used. The transition pictures use artwork of Gresley's streamlined P2's (I know because the engines had 8 driving wheels) and I don't recall Gresley working on the Pennsylvania Railroad K4 Pacifics.
Gresley did not have anything to do with the k4 pacific. Somebody didn't read close enough writing the script. Gresley did work on a k4 2-6-0 for the LNER though. Amazing what 20 seconds on Google will do for ya. Simon, get your shit together!
@@wesw9586 They showed the right K4 at 3:45, just goofed at 7:56.
What a great presentation! I had no idea...the A4 was very cool looking.... putting the "steam" into steam punk.
Mallard is a beauty, saw her in York just last week. A vid on the Napier Deltic diesel would be awesome - plundered German WW2 tech and an opposing piston engine
As a child, learning about the A4's blew my mind; how could a steam train look so cool and I wondered what made them go so much faster than anything else? Along with the Space Shuttle and Voyager Probes, the A4's probably had an influence in my career in civil engineering.
if there isn't a Biographics piece of Sir Gresley, then I think there should be one; the more I read about him, the more I realise how utter Big-Brain he is. I'm pretty sure he's the type of engineer who could be plonked into the world today and would still be a hugely innovative thinker.
Been to the National Railway museum in York (recommend going) a couple of times it has some incredibly old trains even the Japanese Bullet train but nothing is more beautiful than the Mallard. It's a beautiful train design the sleekness and reading about its speed and I'm not into trains but just looking at the engineering skill and what we made back then.
Its sad to see where we are now from where we have come from one of biggest engineering countries.
I grew up in a house opposite the shed 60009 Union of South Africa was kept through the 80’s. Interesting fact she’s the only locomotive to have crossed both the Forth rail and Forth Road bridges. This was bettered when she was driven north again to Fife in retirement over the new Queensferry Crossing so having crossed all three bridges between Fife and Edinburgh.
It is believed that the German BR 05 (from the same time period roughly) was actually faster than mallard. The BR 05 was the first steam locomotive to reach 200 Km/h (roughly 124mph), and mallard reached (126mph) whilst going downhill and using different measuring equipment, and the running gear of the mallard was damaged whereas the running gear of the BR 05 was not. There is then a difference of roughly 2 mph between the two speed runs which is in margin of error and therefore it is not exactly clear which is the faster of the two
Also didn't the BR do it in both directions, while Mallard was only off a downhill start and had to be towed back.
It's perfectly clear. Which one is in the guiness book of records?
There is a german documentary about steamys in the Harz region. The drivers said that every locomotive has its own character despite being the same model. Those drivers worked for decades with the same engine fleet.
Ther are still some of them in service.
12:11 That's the West Coast Main Line (Domain of the LMS), not the East Coast Main Line (where the LNER and LNER A4 operated)
The LNER W1 was most probably the first fully streamlined loco. A full 5 years before the Vanderbilt. The firstA4s had single chimneys. However it was the best looking of all. Close second places the I-7 , Milwaukee F-7 , NYC J3a etc
I once trundled past bittern on my way into bristol templemeads as it was sat in some sidings, the thing was biblical, the size and scale, and style, was incredible!
12:48 The final shot at this speed war would be taken when Mallard reached the Earth escape velocity and now is estimated to be around Kuiper belt.
From reading some of the comments, they sent Mallard out to find the PRR S-1, or signs of intelligence of the various 'murican framers in this comment section.😅😅😅
Built in my home town. Loved seeing it at York railway museum
I was born about 30 minutes away, just further up in Yorkshire. As a kid I loved seeing it on display at the NRM, and I still like it today (it’s probably my all time favourite loco).
A lot of things _were_ better in the past, Simon. Prices, for one. The Mallard is an A4. It's so famous that we even know about it over here in America.
Back to Classic Megaprojects. :)
2:42. Wait wait wait .... WHAT STATUE??
Train Kid from the Game Grumps would love this episode, Simon :D
Adbreak right after the Intro video is much better than hard cut halfway through a thoguht, thanks.
The LNer was actually my first school project back in 1997 as a 7 year old lad.
It made me spend hours printing out colour pages from the internet on my families 65k Modem.
which made it probably my most expensive school project to.
It also captivated me in a way that makes me remember those low res picture and the time i spent printing them out more or less completly almost 30 years later.
The Mallard is most definitely an impressive piece of machinery and unquestionably the fastest official steam locomotive. I would love to see a video of the Norfolk and Western's J class. They were similarly the US's rendition of throwing all the best advancements and efficiencies in attempt to save the best for last and were some of the last steam locomotives produced. While not questioning the speed and superiority of the Mallard's speed record, there are plenty of stories about the J class hitting that mark during regular service in the engineer's attempt to make up time. An official speed record attempt was never tried as far as I know. Another note, there was one other Locomotive that was as or more technologically advanced as the N&W J which was the PRR T1 class. These were never regarded as successful as the J though because of a combination of peculiar operating characteristics and a lack of training which held their performance back. There is a group call the T1 trust that is building from scratch a brand new T1 which is about 75% complete if I'm not mistaken.
The remarkable speed and power aside, these were just quite simply beautiful looking machines to behold, the elegant curves of the streamlining running along that long engine are almost sculpture, it just fits in so perfectly with much of the Art deco era aesthetic . Been fortunate enough to see some of the surviving locos under steam a few times, so much more rewarding than just seeing a static museum exhibition.
If you want to talk about locomotives, I suggest the speed competition in france in 1955 between the CC 7107 and the BB 9004. Crazy battle between engineer!
Actually the fastest steam locomotive to date was the SaturnV third stage during translunar injection. It used an open fire to produce hot steam. That steam then streamed out a special parabolical cylinder driving a piston made of supersonic exhaust gas and thus propelling forward a payload. Also it used tracks made out of orbital mechanics.
Excellent tribute to Sir Nigel & his achievements.
Nobody saved Silver Link.
@@duncancurtis5108 No, or the A3 Papyrus that beat the Flying Scotsman's 100mph record soon after it was set.
As far as the A4s are concerned, Dominion of Canada & Commonwealth of Australia were both offered to the respective country namesakes, but refused.
Mallard was driven almost to destruction in 1938 for the Gresley designed bearings were not up to the job and in fact were the Achilles heel of the A4's and A3's. Gresley had done a great job with streamlining the steam passages so the steam could get into and out of the cylinders very quickly. In the 30's 40's and early 50's A3's and A4's failed on a regular basis due to the Gresley bearings and it was only when Ken Cook of the Great Western was sent in BR days from Swindon to Doncaster that he cured the overheating bearing problem by fitting marine type bearings that the Great Western used and loco failures from bearing issues was consigned to the history books. If Mallard had marine type bearings in 1938 then she would have steamed triumphantly into Kings Cross after her record braking run, not stuck at Peterborough being repaired enough for her to limp to Doncaster and having her record breaking train taken to the Cross by a GNR Atlantic.
Gresley didn't like the exterior streamlining for it 'got in the way of day to day maintenance' but his assistant Oliver Bullied saw the value of streamlining in publicity to give the new engines a sleek look. When WW2 started the lower streamlining covering the wheels was removed and never replaced after the war.
Before the war and A4 failed from bearing problems on a Newcastle to London train and an A3 was used instead. Gresley had a railway correspondent in his office when a messenger boy brought in a piece of paper showing how well the A3 had done. Gresley quipped to the correspondent "there you are Peter see any of my engines can do it whether they've got a bit of bloody tin round them or not!".
It was the Mallard that got me interested in the railway, and is partly to thank for my own subsequent driving career. The Diesels just don’t have the same allure as the steam engines of yesteryear.
6:17 "As seen more clearly in this photo of Mallard minus her cladding." Shows a picture of a fully clad Mallard.
The A4 is magnificent steam passenger locomotive! In the UK without its own strategic petroleum it made sense to keep the railroads fueled by coal. The USA Pennsylvania railroad's 6,500 horsepower T1 duplex steam passenger locomotives were made for 140 mph pulling 16 car long trains. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_T1. Track speed didn't allow for that officially, but the valve gear was failing when it should have been good for 140 mph. The valve company secretly sent agents on the trains heading into Chicago and timed mile posts at over 130 mph. With wheel slip that was pushing the locomotive valve gear into high wear. Instead of criticizing the locomotive driver the valve company started making the valve gear out of higher alloy metals.
You mean ot was😊 designed fkr 120mph, but T1s were clocked going 140.
I'm afraid I don't believe that. Given that high speed on railways was a big thing in pre-war days, and the PRR had its big engines specially styled to look like streamliners, and they were in intense competition with the NYC - if they were capable of breaking the world railway speed record (and even more so if they actually had done, repeatedly!) howcome the PRR publicity department didn't even bother to mention it? Seriously. Authenticated records or it didn't happen.
One reason: the speed limits imposed by the Interstate Commerce Commission, that much-maligned offshoot of the Progressive Era. In the 1920s, the speeds attained by the crack express trains of the various American railroads like the 20th Century Limited of the NYC, the Broadway Limited of the Pennsy, and the 400s of the C&NW, to cite some examples, are in the 100 mph and beyond range, and that raises concerns among people, especially because the safety equipment onboard these trains are still not perfect. And so the ICC imposed a speed limit of 100 mph, with stiff penalties for the transgressors. I forgot the penalty is for the offending railroad, but for the guilty engineer (correct me if I'm wrong), IIRC, it's in the region of around $5k, quite a sum in those days.
8:15 gresley came up with the best idea of a corridor tender in his dining room with the chairs he had to figure out how much room a person needs to walk through
It's amazing how the betterment of aerodynamics increased the top speed of steam locomotives by very little considering that the UP 844 achieved 120mph and has the equivalent aerodynamics of a barn.
The difference in tractive power is only 3.81 lbf/1lbs favoring the 844. The 844 was/is stronger but also heavier.
Though it wasn't recorded in the same manner as the Mallard, the PRR S1 regularly went over 130, and even reportedly topped 150 on a run
As a child I was lucky enough to own a model railway set, many engines and cars and wagons, buy only 2 trains really took hold of my attention, a model of Gordon from TTTE & Freinds and a model of The A4 Mallard.
Now older, I appreciate the amazing detail and capabilities of such models, but cannot think of trains, models or otherwise, without thinking of this EPIC train.
A4 is the best!
Great video, very in depth and I like that you included LMS’s rivalry in there. LMS have argued if they had track similar to what LNER had, they could have beaten Mallard’s record but it’s one of those thing we will never know.
Nice article on these in the current issue of "the Chap"
He went from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway to the Great Northern Railway, which was later amalgamated into LNER. You missed the Great Northern Railway bit out...
7:54 That is the wrong K4. The example pictured is I believe the Pennsylvania Railroad K4, an example of the LNER K4 is 61994 "The Great Marquess"
The PRR T1 class is alleged to have been able to cruise at 120 and peaked at speeds of 140. All of the original ones were scrapped but one is being built new, who knows how much longer the A4's will have their speed record!
I like that these video's go about somethings that arent talked about a lot, its nice to learn things like this :D
We have one in a museum in Québec, Canada... its call dominion of canada. Its possible to see the inside of the locomotive. It's very impressive
Two thoughts
1 in Old times, turntables had a pitch control allowing for plus/minus speed 5%, might be of some use,
2 look at SNCB type 12 (1939)
The A4 is a fantastic locomotive but its record was controversial as it was on a downhill grade when the record was made by this locomotive, but its still amazing although i would also like you to make a video on the Borsig DRG series 05, it's officially the second fastest steam locomotive in the world or the fastest (if you consider the controversy behind A4 mallard), but i don't think i have ever seen a locomotive like the 05 ever, the aerodynamics are insane and it doesn't even look like a steam locomotive at all.......
Steam locomotives are living and breathing tamed monsters, willing to work harder than we can imagine. They hiss and purr ready to do what they do best, run with the wind!
Yaaaaay!!!! I love your steam engine episodes! Thanks Simon!
"They even had their whistles removed"
My brain:TRAGEDY
... actually maybe not thinking about it eh
" Squeezing one out "? The mind boggles.
And immortalised in the track "East Coast Racer" by the band Big Big Train.Well worth a listen. Available on all good streaming platforms!
Though Mallard has the official world steam locomotive speed record, there is one locomotive that is rumored to go faster unofficially, the Pennsylvania railroad T1 duplex, though all original examples were scrapped, currently there is a group called the T1 Trust building one from original plans and they intend to attempt the record. I would love it if you made a video about that locomotive
The first time I saw the Mallard at the National Railway Museum in York I burst into tears and had a quiet sob in the corner. She is just magnificent.
Sorry was sob a typo? Did you actually mean you had a flog in the corner?🤔
Nah mate, I'm not that sort of foamer/gunzel. Sounds like you are though.@@gavrasmussen1305
I love the LNER A4 Pacific, I have Mallard’s name plate tattooed on my arm.
I saw Cabrini last night, it has great steam train scene's!
Steam locomotives are so much cooler than their diesel electrics replacements, there really is no comparison between the two. My father worked on steam trains in the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) here in Canada. when he was a young man and I have had the pleasure of riding Steam locomotives a number of times and they are a nice way to spend an afternoon. There are many closed steam railways in Canada some in theme parks and others on retired lines between certain towns, but they always gather lots of customers willing to ride them for a fee, and there is a small steam locomotive in a small town in Alberta that provides a reenactment of an old west train robbery and the customers get to live the trill of being robbed by train robbers and the watch as the local sheriff Guns them down as they try to use their guns to escape. after that the train continues on to the destination town where a meal is supplied as part of the trip and then a leisurely return to the originating town is made. Runs every year. there is also a couple of running steam locomotives in the Theme park in Calgary, known as Heritage park, that has old houses, hotels, barns and other buildings saved from destruction and built as early as the early 1800s as well as a period amusement park and even a paddle wheeler boat that can be ridden on the Glenmore reservoir, A reservoir fed by a local river called the Elbow River, that comes all the way from the Rocky Mountains about 30 minutes West of the city.
The Eisenhower is kept at the National Raikway Museum (US) in Green Bay Wisconsin. It was only cosmetically restored and is not operational.
That's what they told you. Hmm
What a coincidence. I just went to the railway museum in York 3 days ago where I saw Mallard and then you post this.
Ah yes, for those who watch Thomas & Friends, this is Spencer’s basis.
😂 that made me laugh
My favourite loco! (In case it’s not obvious😂)
I swear it was just called Thomas The Tank Engine when I was a kid. Am I being Mandela effected?
@@Silverwing2112 I believe he was in what were originally called the Railway Adventures. A set of books by Rev. Awdry. Would have to check my bookcase or Google I suppose, I want to say he was the second book but that’s probably wrong.
@@charlottehardy822 I meant the show, but I'll check that out regardless.
You missed out 18 very important years of Gresley's career with GNR from 1905 until amalgamation.
Where he designed the precursor to and prototype for the A1's of the Flying Scotsman fame - The Great Northern
A piece like this about the Class 43 HST would be amazing. They have a huge following, maybe even more so than Mallard...?
my great grandfather had operated the flying scottsman during the war for a time and after he was a replacment crew for her and the mallard, Nice to see this come a video as i love and miss those trains.
The Flying Scotsman is a train service between London and Scotland, Flying Scotsman is an A3 locomotive.
The Mallard such a beautiful machine
Dominion of Canada is in the ExproRail museum in St Constant, just outside Montréal
i love that mallard is still arround today a4 are truly amazing engines as we called them i even have a model from hornby of her even have some flying scotsman first official to hit 100 mph
When the deltics took over from the A4 pacifics on the LNER express 'The Flying Scotsman', they knocked 1 hour off the time from London to Edinburgh. Not because they were faster, but because of two things. They had much better acceleration. This was the steam loco's achilles heel - slow acceleration. And the second was that the deltics were designed to 'cruise' at 100mph easily. So they spent more time at higher speeds than the steam locos they replaced. Also, each steam locomotive was uniique. This followed from their being hand built. Mallard had a known problem with ono of its main wheel bearings, and the maintencne crews put an aniseed "bomb" just near this bearing. It was aniseed liquid in a sausage skin. If the main bearing had too much wear it broke the "bomb" and the crew on the footplate knew there was a problem. This happenned on the record breaking run, and the Mallard had to be taken out of service when it reached Peterborough.
The only steam locomotive I have ever dealt with is the St.Nicholas Abbey Steam railway in Barbados. I grew up in Michigan, born in 1966, and I never remember seeing an actual steam engine in real revenue service.
Steam engines are EXTREMELY complex and need a tender 24/7, while the equivalent diesel simply needs to be started. Thus the manning cost is FAR lower, and this is why the steam engines are gone.
That and the fact that thermodynamically, they were about half as efficient as diesels.....
My Grandad worked on the Mallard, our family is proudly Doncaster based til today.
1:15 - Mid roll ads
2:25 - Chapter 1 - The man
4:25 - Chapter 2 - The design
9:10 - Chapter 3 - The history
17:05 - Conclusion
Check out the HIGH speed rail service of the Milwaukee Road between Chicago Illinois and Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota. In the 1930's the approximately 400 mile trip took slightly over 4 hours. To maintain the printed time table the trains had to travel at an average speed of 87 MPH. One long (40+ miles) flat and straight section of track in central Wisconsin routinely saw speeds in the 120 to 130 MPH range , it was the "make up lost time" portion of the route. The Hiawatha Stream Liner was one of the premier HIGH SPEED rail routes of American train travel in the decade before WWII.
SADLY the current version provided by Amtrack is a shadow of past. Long sections barely average 55 MPH, reportedly portions of the route will reach 75MPH. That is so PATHETIC compared to the average speed of 87MPH with steam 95 years ago. After 95 years it's definitely not new or "improved".
You did this steam locomotive 2 years ago 😅
No matter, im happy to see it covered again! 👏
Cant find it, he must've gotten rid of it.
Or it’s on a different channel? I have a feeling he covered Mallard in particular at some point. Maybe train speed records?
@@charlottehardy822maybe biographics ?
@@jackvos8047 maybe
@charlottehardy822
No, it really was!
It was on Megaprojects in 2022
But I can't find it, probably because of this reboot.
@@charlottehardy822
No. It really was! Megaprojects 2022
I think it was deleted for this reboot
Good subject, trains always amuse me
shut up
I used to have a Mallard poster as a kid and still have a soft spot for steam trains. Maybe their sounds and steam make them feel more like a living thing than their sucessors.
X-62A VISTA! Before you leave the room for the first time in, like, 3 years filming so much, can you please do one on X-62A VISTA and AI piloted aircraft & dogfighting!? It just hit a big program milestone, is why I ask. I feel a bit like Ralphie & his father from Christmas Story always asking for more just before the mother can have a bite to eat for herself 😁
I must admit I have not been that fascinated in trains more with jets for me. However I've always wanted to ride one of those bullet trains in Japan or the new MagLev ones.
Wait till the US finishes their T1 #5550
That record is still up for grabs!
The fastest steam locomotive ever?!?!? NONSENSE!!!! I saw a documentary about a scientist in the old west who got a steam engine up to over 90mhp with a few coloured logs. it would have kept accelerating but some idiot forgot to lay enough track for it so they decided to make it into a plane. It even flew over a good portion of a ravine. It came out in 1990 and I'm pretty sure it was part of a series that began with clocks.
Greatest thing to come out of Doncaster since the Flushing Toilet and even better than Jeremy Clarkson
The PRR T1 could still blow the record out of the water. There is a nonprofit organization working on building a new one built to the same specifications as the original ones. Some things just aren't cost effective or practical to do today, such as casting the frame. It would cost millions to have patterns and molds made, not to mention there are very few facilities left capable of pouring that much metal all at once. So, they've opted to weld plate steel together. Which is stronger and less likely to have defects than cast-iron.
There were stories of them hitting 140 mph, but it was never official. With modern lubricant technology, metallurgy, and welded track, it's designed 140+ should be possible.
Well obviously someone can build a steam train faster in 2024 than they can in 1934. It would be kinda humiliating if they couldn't like if the new sports car you just bought was slower than a car from the 1930s