Speaker John Watson - Historic Trains

John said that as it was the 200th birthday of the formation of railways and the 50th birthday of the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York he had decided to talk about a bit of the history of locomotives. But first he sang the praises of the NRM which has now opened a branch in Shildon County Durham. This has made it the biggest railway museum in world and most visited. As well as having 260 locomotives on display it also has carriages including 2 royal carriages – one that was used by Queen Victoria and the other by King George VI. 

The railway system was very important to the growth of York which expanded from a population of 17,000 In 1800 to 83,000 in 1900. The largest of Britain’s 12 Rail Operating Centres is still based in York and controls the London North East region as well as the East Coast main line.

He then went on to talk about the Mallard which remains the fastest steam train ever having recorded a top speed of 126 mph on 3 July 1938. This beat the previous record of a German train which was 117mph. The 35 A4 Pacific class locomotives of which Mallard is one were designed by Sir Nigel Gresley specifically to meet the demand for high speed passenger services. He then showed a short video from YouTube covering the Mallard: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTRK2ipM20U 

John then moved onto the Rocket which was made for the 1829 trials at Rainhill on the partly completed Liverpool to Manchester to establish which model was if any was suitable for hauling goods and passengers. 5 locomotives took part in the trials and Rocket won. It reached a top speed of 35mph and averaged 12mph. It was the only locomotive of the 5 to complete all 6 days of the trials.

Rocket was very innovative: -

• It was 300 pounds lighter than it’s competitors.
• The driving rods were changed from vertical to a 45 degree angle.
• There was a fire box to enable the removal of clinker.
• Steam engines need to heat a lot of water and to help with this Stevenson put pipes through the boiler to take hot air from the fire through the water giving a greater surface area to heat it.

He then showed 2 videos from YouTube: -

• One by the curator of the NMR - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lMaouy1RwI&t=23s 
• The second a short film about the replica Rocket that has been built by the NMR - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNn0LC_9imY