Customer Reviews
Throroughly enjoyed this account of steam rivalry, 9 out of 10 - By: Mr. DAVID Geer, 15 Jul 2008 
This book manages to give a concise biography of Gresley whilst telling us how Mallard came to gain the World Speed record. It also partly explains why steam traction lasted so long (by comparison with diesels), though there is no comparison with electric traction systems, loco or multi-units as operated by, I believe the Southern Region earlier than elsewherein the UK, & the long legacy the Swiss havein electric traction. Apart from this & a slight dryness of style it is a 10 star book.
Railway marvel that beat the world... - By: harry, 19 May 2008 
YORKSHIRE POST.
The railway marvel that beat the world
For those who marvel at the British star of the National Railway Museum, a new book contains some startling disclosures. The Nazis & an Italian car designer played their partin Mallard's world speed record.
John Woodcock reports.
In the age of steam, the footplate rather than a football, was the route to celebrity. Unbelievable though it seems now, engine drivers on the East Coast Main Line were almost as famous as today's soccer stars.
The London & North Eastern Railway saw valuable mileagein promoting those who propelled their expresses. A man entrusted with Flying Scotsman & the other classic names had his face featured on all kinds of marketing material. Biscuit tins, playing cards, jigsaws & posters. Few jobs were as prestigiousin any sphere.
Among the sooty, oil-stained heroes was Joe Duddington, based at the Doncaster depot, & making a flambuoyant fashion statement 70 & more years before David Beckham.
He almost always wore his cloth cap back to front,in traditional racing style, a particularly appropriate gesture given the placein history he was to claim on the afternoon of July 3, 1938.
He was 61 at the time. How many individuals approaching their old-age pension today would be given the chance to a break a world speed record?
Duddington & his colleague, fireman Tommy Bray, had been informed they were needed for a secret mission. Its outcome would reverberate around the world, not leastin Nazi Germany, & owe much to the influence of a brilliant Italian who out of economic necessity had switched from building racing cars, to designing & manufacturing trains.
Adolf Hitler's propaganda machine, & the genius of Ettore Bugatti, are two of the lesser-known factors behind Mallard's immortal fiery dash between Grantham & Peterborough on that Sunday afternoon.
Their impact on events over those few miles, & on a Derbyshire vicar's son, Nigel Gresley, who designed the extraordinary locomotive, are detailedin a new book about the record-breaker.
It was an era of political & social crisis that produced fertile ground for uplifting diversions. There was an almost fanatical obsession with breaking air & land speed records, not leastin Germany where the feats of the Reichsbahn's steam engines & diesels were trumpeted by Joseph Goebbels as symbolic of Nazi power.
At one point Gresley, the innovative chief mechanical engineer of the LNER, but receptive to the ideas of others, thought an adapted version of the Germans' 100mph Flying Hamburger could have a role on the East Coast route. He was also facing fearsome domestic competition from the LMS, the company with a rival route to Scotland.
In the end Gresley found a conqueror of both on his own drawing boards at Doncaster works. It was an improved version of Silver Link, an A4 Pacific whose curved, wedge-shaped front, "more dart than tube", owed much to his association with Bugatti & his streamlined motor designs.
What names should he give his new fleet? Apart from golf, Gresley had a love of wild birds, &in his office at King's Cross, a clerk saw him jotting down names on the back of an envelope.
Suggestions included Guillemot, Herring Gull, Wild Swan, Gannet & Seagull, all "strong on the wing"in keeping with the imageof the railway's fliers.
Come the day, No. 4468 Mallard was chosen for what had officially been scheduled as a brake-testing run, but which, to the fewin the know, was also to be an attempt on the British steam speed record, held by the LMS.
Even without fare-paying passengers the train looked majestic; locomotivein garter-blue, its enormous driving wheels a rich Coronation red, six carriages from the Coronation Pullman, & a teak-pannelled dynamometer car, packed with recording equipment. Destiny beckoned, & with typically-British elements. Those on board had a packed lunch & cup of tea, a stink bomb was added to lubricants to provide an early warning if the engine's middle
big end overheated, & the record bid began with a speed restriction of 18mph at Grantham caused by Sunday track maintenance.
Driver Duddington described what happened next. "I accelerated up the bank to Stoke summit & passed Stoke box at 85. Once over the top, I gave Mallard her head & she just jumped to it like a live thing."
In Stoke Tunnel one of those taking measurements recalled how they "were treated to a thrilling display as the whole
car was lit up by a torrent of red-hot cinders streaming back from the locomotive's twin chimneys".
Up front, Duddington & his fireman were pushing ever closer to the previous national best of 114mph. "After three miles the speedometerin my cab showed
107 miles an hour, then 108, 109,110... before I knew it, the needle was at 116 & we'd got the record'.
There was a momentum to press on & challenge the world mark of 124.5mph, set by a German steam locomotive. Could Mallard beat it? She "took wing" & Duddington told later how he urged her on. "Go on girl, I thought, we can do better than this. I nursed her & shot through Little Bytham at 123..."
As the train shook violently, crockery crashed to the floor, & "given the chance the guard would have happily got off" according to official archives, monitoring machines revealed that the locomotive reached 126.1mph for a few moments before a distinctive odour indicated that the stink bomb had done its job.
Mallard limped into Peterborough, all but exhausted, but with a new name, "Blue Streak", courtesy of an ecstatic media, & a record that would never be broken.
Gresley, who had already received a knighthood for his achievementsin railway technology, was not on board for his finest hour. While his deteriorating health kept him at home, the driver & fireman he'd chosen for the task became national celebrities.
Duddington responded by heaping praise where it was most deserved. Mallard, he said, was "the best engine ever built, & which ever will be built".
Hard as he tried, even spinmeister Goebbels couldn't undermine the universal acclaim for Britain's first conquest of the Nazis, an event, incidentally, which is still much debated among German rail enthusiasts.
The book's author, journalist Don Hale, became as nationally famous as his subject through his campaign to clear the name
of Stephen Downing, imprisoned for 27 years for the murder of
a womanin Bakewell, Derbyshire.
Researching the Mallard story, much of which had not been told publicly before, took Hale to Germany & into the records here of a time when luxurious steam trains contrasted with soup kitchens, Mosley's Black Shirts & the Jarrow Hunger March - whose 200 protesters were transported home from London on a special train, courtesy of LNER.
Mallard was finally withdrawn from servicein April, 1963, with a total mileage of 1,414,138, & five years before the last steam trains ran for British Railways.
She is now the most popular exhibit at the National Railway Museum, unlikely ever to steam again, but a memorial, as Hale points out, to intelligent, startling design, brilliant construction, & the pride of those who drove, fired, repaired & cleaned her.
Still ahead of her time, too. With the exception of the Eurostar service, no everyday passenger trainsin Britain exceed her record speed.
A great book for railway enthusiasts - By: Baruch Pinnick, 21 Apr 2008 If you are a railway enthusiast I thoroughly recommend this book. The successful attempt on the world steam speed record is setin context: Nigel Gresley, his previous locomotives, the LNER, the British railway worldin the 1930s. Plus a lovely message of congratulation (after Mallard's success) from Gresley's supposed rival Stanier.
The book is well-researched & well-written, & it doesn't get lostin technical details. There's a good photo section (black & white), my favourite being Gresley feeding some Mallard ducks on the water.
Great product.
Another great book from Don Hale - By: Mr. C. R. Williams, 03 Jun 2006 This book is a must for all steam enthusiasts. Not only does it tell the story of Mallard, but also the story of Sir Nigel Gresley one of Britain's finest railway engineers. The chapters flow effortlessly into one another recalling the golden age of steam with such realism, that you can virtually smell the coal dust & hear the sounds of Britain's greatest steam engines. The rivalry & tension between competing rail operators, & also the German railways, builds up into an exciting climax. Mallards record breaking day is recalledin great detail leaving the reader with a complete sense of that exciting dayin British history. It's packed with detail, accurate information, & some rare photographs.
I have read it from cover to cover & thoroughly recommend it.
Another great book from Don Hale - By: Mr. C. R. Williams, 29 May 2006 This book is a must for all steam enthusiasts. Not only does it tell the story of Mallard, but also the story of Sir Nigel Gresley one of Britain's finest railway engineers. The chapters flow effortlessly into one another recalling the golden age of steam with such realism, that you can virtually smell the coal dust & hear the sounds of Britain's greatest steam engines. The rivalry & tension between competing rail operators, & also the German railways, builds up into an exciting climax. Mallards record breaking day is recalledin great detail leaving the reader with a complete sense of that exciting dayin British history. It's packed with detail, accurate information, & some rare photographs.
I have read it from cover to cover & thoroughly recommend it.
Chris Williams - Stoke-on-Trent.
