Introduction
LNER A3 No. 4472 ‘Flying Scotsman’ won a place in the history books and in the hearts of millions worldwide when in 1934 she clocked 100 mph and set a world speed record for steam. But history had already been made when in 1928, the train service from which she took her name completed the world’s longest non-stop run.
THE London and North Eastern Railway’s flagship service from London to Edinburgh ‘The Flying Scotsman’ began running in 1862, taking a leisurely 10½ hours with a break for lunch at York. Restaurant cars helped bring down the times, but when steam locomotive No. 4472 ‘Flying Scotsman’* eased out of King’s Cross on May 1st, 1928, at the head of a record-breaking 392-mile non-stop run, the train (including a barber’s shop) was still timetabled to take almost nine hours, thanks to a speed cap agreed between the rival West and East Coast lines in the wake of a headline-grabbing derailment at Preston in 1896.*
But in the intervening thirty-two years, locomotive design, brakes, track and signalling had progressed by leaps and bounds, and the archaic cap was stunting the nation’s economic and social development. In 1932 it was abolished, allowing advanced engineering to slash eighty minutes off the journey time and whisk ‘The Flying Scotsman’ between the capitals in just seven hours and twenty minutes, averaging 53 mph.*
It is important to distinguish ‘The Flying Scotsman’ and ‘Flying Scotsman’, at any rate in conversation with railway enthusiasts. ‘The Flying Scotsman’ is the name of a train service between London and Edinburgh via York. ‘Flying Scotsman’ is the name of a steam locomotive, LNER Class A3 No. 4472, designed by Nigel Gresley and entering service in 1923. She still hauls excursion trains today: see the official Flying Scotsman website for more information.
At Preston on July 13th, 1896, the down (i.e. away from London) ‘Highland Express’, derailed in the small hours while running non-stop through the station, killing one of the sixteen passengers on board. The cause was deemed to be excessive speed on a tight curve, as the drivers of the double-headed train, who were new to the route, attempted to maintain an average of 60 mph over 105 miles. The cap was not on maximum speed but on average speed, setting a fixed minimum time for Anglo-Scottish services and signalling an end to a decade of ‘races’ that had undermined public confidence.
The fastest timetabled journey between the two capital cities today stands at four hours and twenty minutes.
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