How Gresley's A4 Pacifics became the World's Fastest Steam Engines

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] when one thinks of the golden age of railways timeless streamlined looks of lners a4 pacifics are the first image that spring immediately to mind the a4 pacifics were a perfect mixture of style and substance being just as formidable mechanically as they were cosmetically and were able to marry speed and reliability with an aesthetic that still looks good even today to understand the a4 pacifics you need to look back on the mindset and policies of the company for which they were built the london and northeastern railway or lner the lner was formed as part of the railways act of 1921 which grouped the great eastern railway the great central railway the great northern railway the great north of scotland railway the hull and barnsley railway the north british railway and the northeastern railway into a single company what the lner inherited was the east coast main line between london peterborough leeds york hull newcastle and edinburgh the great eastern main line between london colchester norwich and ipswich the great central railway between london rugby leicester and nottingham and a variety of other subsidiary routes that spread across eastern england and the vast highlands and lowlands of scotland the lnr's primary income during the 1920s and 30s was through freight operations specifically coal traffic the coal fields of county durham north yorkshire tynan ware northumberland and scotland were one of the largest contributors to the national gdp of britain and the lner was tasked to transport coal from the mines to the dockyards for export as well as internal shipping to factories and private users in the cities the problem was that this freight-based system was dependent largely on the state of the economy and following the wall street crash of 1929 the lner struggled to maintain a profit as freight demand dwindled thus in 1933 the company agreed to take low interest loans supplied by the uk government in order to stay afloat on the other hand lner also provided primary passenger operations on three main lines out of london comprised of both long distance expresses to the east midlands anglia north east england and scotland as well as vital suburban services within the home counties to complement the l er's passenger operations especially at the height of the art deco era of the roaring 20s the company placed a major slant on image with their new services comprised of lavish and stylistic trains that were the cream of rail travel the management knew that even if these services were forced to run at a loss image was key to being the primary passenger service north out of london made more important by the company's rivalry with the lms on services to scotland despite the financial problems the lner endured many of their designs were nothing short of innovative for instance the company operated electric suburban trains in the newcastle area with the tyneside electrics although these had originally been pioneered by the northeastern railway prior to the lner's formation modernization was a major part of the lner's agenda and included many experiments such as the one co-1 diesel electric locomotive tested in 1933 around newcastle and their ambitious proposal to electrify the manchester to sheffield and wath railway with 1500 volt dc overhead electrics which ultimately resulted in the woodhead electric railway much of the design prowess of the lner stemmed from its chief mechanical engineer sir nigel gresley who had originally joined the lancashire and yorkshire railway as an apprentice in the late 1800s in 1905 he moved to the great northern railway succeeding henry a ivert as their chief mechanical engineer with the great northern railway grizzly designed 11 individual classes of locomotive with the company starting with the 536 class later j6 060 goods engine in 1911 in collaboration with henry ivert but later including the h3 mixed traffic 260. the n2 suburban tank engine the o2 3-cylinder 280 freight engine and the a1 express passenger locomotive with lner his engineering success continued with the likes of the p1 mikaido freight engine the u1 articulated garrett the j38 freight engine the b17 passenger engine the p2 express passenger loco the k4 passenger locomotive for the west highland line and early prototypes of what would later become the em-1 electric locomotive for the woodhead route as well as rebuilding his original gnr a1 class to improve their performance through the fitting of a higher pressure boiler the fruits of his labor becoming the a3 despite the global economy suffering from the aftermath of the 1929 wall street crash the glitz and glamour of this golden era of railways refused to let up the only way to retain passengers was to provide intercity services that were faster more reliable and more comfortable much of this was also compounded by the appearance of high-speed diesel trains in europe in 1933 the deutsche reichsbahn unveiled the class svt 877 also known as the fligender hamburger or flying hamburger a 99 mile an hour diesel rail car that operated express services between berlin and hamburg to observe the changes in railway technology grizzly traveled to germany and took a ride on the flagender hamburger being impressed by its performance however while he noted that it was imperative for streamlining to be installed on frontline steam locomotives these trains would only operate most efficiently at the highest possible speeds having garnered the interest of the lner management grizzly trialled two modified variants of his original class a1 1472 flying scotsman which was still an a1 by this point and rebuilt class a3 2750 papyrus the first test was carried out by flying scotsman which propelled itself into the pages of history by breaking 100 miles an hour on november 30th 1934 the first steam locomotive to be officially authenticated at this speed following flying scotsman's run papyrus reached 108 miles an hour and maintained an average speed of above 100 miles an hour for 12 consecutive miles while hauling a full rake of coaches holding the record for fastest non-streamlined steam locomotive jointly with the norda 3 1200 super pacific of france the success of these trial runs was all the incentive the lner board of directors needed to give grizzly the go-ahead and thus he devised the silver jubilee trains so named in conjunction with the silver jubilee of king george v the concept behind the silver jubilee was a completely streamlined train set of locomotives and coaches with valances between the bogeys and flexible covers over the end of the coaches to improve aerodynamics the full seven car train set had a capacity of 198 passengers and will comprise of three sections a twin articulated break third triple articulated restaurant set and a twin articulated first class as for the locomotive gresley took inspiration for the streamlined styling from the auto rail bugatti a series of aerodynamic two-car rail motors built for the french railways the design of kresley's locomotive was assisted by professor william dolby who provided the wind tunnel facilities at the national physical laboratory or mpl at teddington wind tunnel tests also helped kresley determine how to direct smoke away from the cab at first he considered smoke deflectors but after a number of tries he found that nothing was pushing smoke clear of the cab during further tests on the plasticine scale model grizzly noticed that someone had inadvertently left a thumb indentation on the body just behind the chimney desperate for a solution gresley ran another test with this blemish in situ and incredibly it solved the problem blowing smoke well clear of the cab although the general underpinnings of this new locomotive were based almost entirely off the a3 there were some notable changes to improve the design the boiler pressure was increased from 220 psi to 250 psi and the cylinders were decreased slightly in size so that the valve diameters could be increased to 9 inches producing free steaming within the restrictions of a 3-cylinder design additional refinements included the karl chap double blast pipe exhaust and westinghouse qsa break valves but these were only placed onto later production models as the design was improved incrementally the first of gresley's new class of a4 locomotive built at lner's works in doncaster ran a demonstration train from london king's cross to grantham on september 27 1935 reaching a top speed of 112.5 miles an hour the locomotive 2509 silverlink and its matching articulated set of seven coaches commenced revenue earnings service on october 1st followed by three other classmates with their own rates of dedicated coaches silver jubilee express trains were an instant hit among the travelling public shaving the journey time between london and newcastle down to a mere four hours the commercial success of the silver jubilee led to l er ordering five additional a4 locomotives from the doncaster works 4482-4486 the first of these new engines 4482 emerged from the doncaster works in december 1936 and from 1937 a4s were now operating fast services between london and hull creating the world's first high-speed intercity rail network from the original five plus the four silver jubilee engines an additional 26 locomotives were added to the fleet bringing the total number of a4s to 35 when production ended in july 1938. with demand now exceeding supply to ride the silver jubilee these train sets were extended to eight coaches from february 1938 and a4s were placed onto an increasingly wide variety of top-line expresses illustrating their flexibility outside of silver jubilee services the most notable train on the lner was the coronation which was introduced on july 5th 1937 and was named to commemorate the coronation of king george vi and queen elizabeth the train usually hauled by a garter blue a4 pacific comprised of eight coaches made up of two articulated four-car sets and operated between london and edinburgh aside from wearing a distinctive two-tone blue livery the train also featured an observation carriage at the rear dubbed the beaver tail the third train to consist of articulated coaches the west riding limited began on september 27 1937 operating between london leeds and bradford and was hauled by 4492 dominion of new zealand on its inaugural run such was the reliability of these engines that in the 1952 runs of the silver jubilee there were only 10 occasions where a mechanical issue with the a4 was noted furthermore these operations were incredibly safe with no reported accidents or incidents occurring during the life of the silver jubilee service even for engine crews the a4s were superb locomotives to drive with a spacious cab smooth ride and performance that could easily power even the toughest loads while the a4s were the face of rail travel during the 1930s they still hadn't obtained the coveted record for fast steam locomotive on may 11 1936 deutsche reichsbahn's class 05 05002 took home the record after achieving a speed of 124.5 miles an hour on the berlin to hamburg main line while hauling a 197 tonne train in response the lner prepared a special run with locomotive 2512 silver fox by then the newest member of the class to be built in order to try and beat this record fitted with a dynamometer car the trial operated between newcastle and london and was driven by george henry haygreen who had originally pushed silverlink to 112 miles an hour on the silver jubilee inaugural run the problem was that the management failed to tell hay green he was meant to be trying to beat the class 05's record and thus upon reaching stoke bank a notable descent in the lincolnshire countryside between grantham and peterborough he had neither sufficient speed nor a sufficient reserve of boiler pressure to attempt the record this doesn't mean he didn't try though and by pushing the engine to its very limits he forced it up to 113 miles an hour but in so doing the locomotive paid the price while this train holds the record for the fastest revenue-earning steam train in britain the engine's middle big end suffered damage and it eventually limped into king's cross seven minutes late while this trial run failed to break any records it did illustrate that the a4s had a reserve of power and thus would be suitable to operate 10 coach trains on a planned glasgow to london service just under a year later on june 28 1937 the rival lms took home the record for fastest british steam locomotive at 114 miles an hour achieved by one of their streamlined coronation pacifics for the record-breaking run pioneer coronation pacific number 6220 coronation hold a special train between london and crew attaining its maximum speed of 114 miles an hour just south of its destination again the lner tried to beat both the british and world record this time on the inaugural run of the new coronation service with 4489 dominion of canada at the helm but this only achieved 109.5 miles an hour while coming down stoke bank conscious of the fact that with increased speed came increased braking distances grizzly decided to trial a modified braking system designed by westinghouse which was already in use on lms locomotives on july 3rd 1938 a train was assembled for the westinghouse team to test their braking system on the consists being made up of six coaches and the 1906 built northeastern railway dynamometer car while power was provided by four-month-old a4 pacific 4468 mallard on the throttle was jay duddington a doncaster-based engine man who had established a reputation for driving locomotives hard while also on the footplate was fireman t bray and inspector jay jenkins once the westinghouse team were aboard any notions that this run was to simply trial their braking system were wiped clean when it was announced that they would be attempting to break the world record and that the reason for being so aloof prior to the run was to keep it a secret from the rival lms and to avoid the ire of the lner's civil engineering department who frowned upon the running of trains at over 120 miles an hour on tracks with 90 mile an hour speed limits the run started in london and traveled as far north as grantham with an initial break test undertaken using the westinghouse system along the way then the train was turned around and began its return working back towards peterborough passing stoke's signal box at 74 miles an hour the train's speed increased rapidly and soon it had broken the lms's record by attaining 116 miles an hour at mile post 94 with the dynamometer car recording a maximum draw bar of 1800 horsepower between milepost 92 and milepost 89 the train reached 120 miles an hour and for a mere 306 yards mallard broke 125 miles an hour bringing home the world record for steam traction arriving into peterborough the engine crew found that the engine's center bearing had overheated and partially melted and thus in order to meet its adoring public and the press at king's cross it had to be towed behind an ivett atlantic thankfully the repair work to the locomotive was easily accomplished and nine days later malad was steaming in revenue earnings service once again now the undisputed record holder for fastest steam locomotive in the world a title it maintains to this day gresley certain that the a4s could achieve 130 miles an hour if pushed further prepared to undertake another record run in september 1939. but his plans were put on hold indefinitely when war between britain and germany was declared on september 3rd of that year the start of world war ii brought an abrupt end to the glamorous golden era of trains but streamlined services on the lner had ceased prior to the start of the conflict with the enactment of the emergency powers defense act by parliament the previous month as many resources as possible were dedicated to the war effort including the start of evacuation trains for children in the cities being shipped out to the countryside to avoid the threat of air raids therefore the final silver jubilee coronation and west riding limited services were undertaken on august 31st the last time they'd ever run during wartime the a4s were painted black as an austerity measure in common with other express locomotives and were designated part of the northeast region or ne during world war ii only one a4 locomotive was lost that being 4469 sir ralph wedgewood on the night of april 28th 1942 4469 was undergoing repairs at york's north shed now the national railway museum when the luftwaffe commenced a beda carat on the city the b decker blitz named after the b decker german tourist guide books were done in revenge for the raf's bombing of lubeck in march 1942 wherein the luftwaffe targeted centers of cultural and historic significance rather than strategic value in order to british morale during the raid on york the station and the north shed were struck with one bomb falling through the roof of the engine house and landing between 4469 and b16 freight locomotive number 925 blowing both engines apart what was left of 4469 was subsequently scrapped but the tender was recovered and eventually paired with thompson class a2 1 number 3696 highland chieftain overall the class generally survived the war but less could be said for the rail network as a whole after years of bomb damage and neglect the infrastructure of britain's railways was tired and decrepid and the steps had to be taken to return the system to an acceptable order with the big4 essentially bankrupt parliament made the decision in 1947 to nationalize the rail network so as to directly manage its rebuilding and recovery thus resulting in the formation of british railways effective january 1 1948 in 1948 in order to determine the performance of different locomotives from the former big four exchange trials were undertaken whereby engines of the lms lner great western railway and southern were put to work on their former rivals routes to see how they compared the a4s produced some good results and had the lowest coal and water consumption figures of any express locomotive but were unfortunately not immune to failures most notably stemming from their conjugated motion the conjugated motion while an excellent feature only worked its best when well maintained something these engines had lacked during the war back on the former l er roots out of king's cross attempts to restart non-stop expresses in the summer of 1948 were hampered by flooding which collapsed several bridges along the route of the east coast mainline in southeast scotland as such services to edinburgh had to be diverted via selby leeds and the settle in carlisle before heading back towards edinburgh via the waverly route through hoik it was in this that on august 24th 60028 walter k wiggum on its first run managed to travel non-stop from edinburgh to king's cross via hoyk carlisle settle leeds and selby a record-setting distance of 408.65 miles this record was only beaten by 4472 flying scotsman when it ran 422 miles non-stop in august 1989 while on tour in australia gradually as the former route of the lner now designated the eastern region of british railways was revitalized speeds began to improve but never reached their pre-war peak in 1955 british railways drafted the modernization plan a scheme in which steam power would be replaced by the widespread adoption of diesel and electric traction initially electrification of the east coast mainline similar to the west coast mainline was proposed with a fleet of 100 mile an hour ac electric locomotives introduced but it was found that in light of br's limited budget attempting to modify the roof at king's cross would be cost prohibitive diesel power was considered instead which came to a head in the form of english electric's prototype dp-1 a diesel locomotive fitted with two napier deltic marine engines from the hunt class minesweeper tested between 1957 and 1961 dp1 superb performance paved the way for an order of 22 production deltic locomotives later designated class 55 these engines being the first diesel locomotives to run at a sustained 100 miles an hour in the uk as deltix began to appear from 1961 the first a4s to be withdrawn was 6003 andrew k mccosh 60014 silverlink 60028 walter k wiggum six doublo 30 golden fleece and 6033 seagull being taken out of service in december 1962 followed in 1963 by a further 10 locomotives 7 in 1964 and 6 in 1965. as deltix and brush type 4s took over on top expresses compounded further by the closure of king's cross shed to steam in 1964 the service patterns for the a4s were pushed gradually north until eventually the final few stragglers were working exclusively on expresses between glasgow edinburgh and aberdeen as well as parcels trains and the occasional freight service however despite their relegation to the far north of scotland these locomotives still proved their worth on the glasgow to aberdeen run shaving half an hour off the three and a half hour journey time the curtain for the a4s had to fall though and by 1966 only six members of the class remained in service 6004 william whitlow 6007 sir nigel gresley 6009 union of south africa 60019 bitten 60024 kingsfisher and 60034 lord farringdon bitten had the honor of working the last a ford powered train under british railways that being a service from glasgow to aberdeen on september 3rd 1966 the locomotive so poorly maintained that it was only able to operate thanks to light last minute repairs in total of the 35 locomotives built only six have been saved for preservation together with a few sundry items those locomotives that survived the scrapyard were 6007 sir nigel gresley 6008 dwight d eisenhower 6009 union of south africa 6010 dominion of canada 60019 bitten and 6022 mallard of these four remain in the uk while 6008 dwight d eisenhower was donated to the national railroad museum in green bay wisconsin and 6010 dominion of canada was donated to the canadian railway museum in montreal while mallard restored to its as-built condition and number was placed on static display at the national railway museum in york as the first a4 to enter preservation for a short period between july 1986 and 1988 the engine was returned to working order and operated a series of rail tours between york and scarborough as well as york to leeds via harrogate on july 3 1988 the 50th anniversary of its record-breaking run was celebrated in conjunction with the new electric race horse for the east coast main line the prototype class 89 8901 where it worked a rail tour from doncaster to leeds and then to york via harrogate before returning to doncaster and handing its train back to 8901 for the homewood bound run to london one of its final rail tours was the postal pullman sponsored by the post office which ran between london marylebone and banbury drawing a significant crowd after this the engine returned to the life of a static display in 2013 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of mallard's record-breaking run bitten was given special permission by network rail to operate above the 75 mile an hour speed limit for steam locomotives on the main line hauling three special charter trains throughout the summer at 90 miles an hour on june 29 2013 the engine broke the speed record for a preserved british steam locomotive when it detained 92.8 miles an hour near arsley bedfordshire while hauling the eva streak rail tour between london and york on december 7th bitten broke its own record by reaching 93 miles an hour on the time t streak this record would stand until april 12 2017 when peppercorn class a1 replica number 60163 tornado broke 101.6 miles an hour during a test run on the east coast main line the first british steam engine to reach 100 miles an hour since 1967. today of the six preserved a4s only union of south africa is currently in working order and approved for mainline operation but this certificate is set to expire at the end of 2020 the hope is that once sinatra gresley has finished being overhauled at the north yorkshire moors railway it'll be allowed to return to the main line perhaps the most notable event the a4s have seen in preservation was when all six classmates were reunited between 2012 and 2013 as part of the great gathering with 6008 dwight d eisenhower and 6001 oh dominion of canada returning to their uk home for the first time since the 1960s the great gathering organized by the national railway museum was a unique opportunity to see all six surviving locos side by side once again with thousands turning out to admire these magnificent engines truly the most iconic steam locomotives to have ever been built thanks again for watching this video if you enjoyed it why not leave a like and be sure to subscribe for more great content thank you very much take care and i'll see you next time you

Channel: Ruairidh MacVeigh

Views: 763,989

Keywords: emu, diesel, express, multiple unit, rail, train, electric locomotive, passenger, shunter, trains, dmu, branch, diesel locomotive, class, engine, mainline, railways, steam locomotive, locomotive, freight, railway, track, LNER, London and North Eastern Railway, LMS, London Midland and Scottish Railway, A4 Pacific, A4, Gresley, Sir Nigel Gresley, Gresley A4 Pacific, 4-6-2, British Railways, BR, Mallard, 4468, 4468 Mallard, London, Kings Cross, London Kings Cross, World's Fastest Steam Train, Record, Fast

Id: WTeFc1VgwP4

Length: 28min 33sec (1713 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2020