There's been a lot of fuss lately about the Flying Scotsman but the Mallard was a much more impressive, the fastest steam engine there ever was according to official records. Born of a century's technological development, experience and scientific discovery, Mallard was the greatest steam engine ever created.
She was not just sleek, powerful and quick; she was also beautiful. Sir Nigel Gresley, the genius who created her, had vast workshops as well as a huge industrial battalion to do his bidding and could tour the world seeking the most advanced technologies.
The Pacific A4 class of locomotive, including most famously Mallard, was developed at a critical point of history: the goldilocks moment, when the age of steam was at its height, and before the shadow of the Second World War eclipsed the splendour that had been the railway age.
It was never the same again. After the war the diesels and electric trains took over.
In the 1930s two British railway companies (the LNER and the LMS) offered rival services from London to Scotland, but they could not compete on price, the Government had introduced a national ticketing system.
What they did instead was usher in the age of elegance and luxury on the rails, in the LNER's case famously with Sir Nigel Gresley's Teaks, probably the most elegant British railway carriages there ever were. All the others are just coaches or compartments: Gresley's Teaks are carriages.
In addition there was the Race to the North, the unofficial but deadly serious, rivalry between LNER and LMS over journey times between London and Scotland.
This video tells this incredible story. For further information (and photos) see [ Ссылка ]
