Book description
It ought to be a film, of course, pitched somewhere between The
Right Stuff and Chariots of Fire. Meanwhile, Don Hale's well-ordered,
compelling book will do nicely' Andrew Martin, Daily Express Seventy
years ago, on 3 July 1938, on the East Coast main line, the
streamlined A4 Pacific locomotive Mallard reached a top speed of
126mph - a world record for steam locomotives which still stands.
Since then, millions have seen this famous locomotive, resplendent in
her blue livery, on display at the National Railway Museum in York.
Don Hale tells the full story of how the record was broken, from the
nineteenth century rivalry to be fastest between London and Scotland,
and, surprisingly, traces Mallard's futuristic design to the Bugatti
car and Germany's nascent Third Reich, which elevated the train into
an instrument of national prestige. And he celebrates the singular
figure of Mallard's designer, Sir Nigel Gresley, one of Britain's most
gifted engineers. Mallard is a wonderfully nostalgic evocation of one
of British technology's finest hours.
