The LNER Class A4: The Fastest Steam Locomotive Ever

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The A4 is such a source of national pride that, even to this very day, 92% of all reams of printer paper sold in Britain are named after it.

As a little lad in the early 60’s, I remember standing, at ground level, right next to the driving wheels of an A4, in Hartlepool station, just off the end of the platform. So, so quiet until she started her roll, lost traction and, accompanied by massive and dramatic wheel spin, finally bit the rails and set off amidst clouds of steam and a crescendo of mechanical bliss. Never to be forgotten.

'kicking in his door and squeezing one out in his cornflakes' Bloody poetry......cheers.

The Class 55 "Deltics" had, and still have a large following over 40 years after their retirement from British Rail. Perhaps you might consider a programme about the legendary "Deltics".

Mallard!!!!!!!! My childhood obsession is being covered.

One small correction. Gresley did not become CME of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1911, it was the Great Northern Railway and the L&YR was amalgamated into the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway upon the Grouping Act in 1923 and not the London and North Eastern Railway. Also the "K4" seen at 7:55 is the Pennsylvania Railroad's K4 class 4-6-2 Pacifics which is a very different beast to the LNER's K4 class 2-6-0 moguls.

There is something so imposing about this style of steam loco. They are pure muscle.

Calling the Deltic "soulless" is practically fighting talk in these parts ;) Great video nonetheless, although I think the most important part of the A4's streamlining was the work done on the internal gas flow. I also think it is one of those nice historical coincidences that Gresley and Ettore Bugatti were friends and Bugatti's work influenced the shape of the A4. While Bugatti's great automotive Rival, W.O. Bentley served his apprenticeship at the Great Eastern Railway and would have been there (if I remember correctly) while Gresley was Chief Mechanical Engineer.

Those A4's... they look fast just standing still. Beautiful machines, just amazing looking and a wonderful legacy that Sir Nigel left to the nation.

12:09 - that is the LMS route, not the LNER route, which goes via Peterborough / York / Newcastle, and if they call at Glasgow, they do so after Edinburgh. It is worth noting that electric trains came before diesel. They were the future, and diesel was considered a low-cost substitute for lines that didn't have enough traffic to justify electrification. We do also hold the world record for the world's fastest diesel with the BR Class 43 (Intercity 125).

The class 55 Deltics are far from soulless, they too have a storied history and an interesting design thats gained them a sizable fanbase. The Deltic prototype was also a very special looking locomotive, adopting what I would personally describe as a more "American" styling compared to other BR locomotives. I'd be interested in seeing an episode on the Deltics, or even an episode covering the whole push to Diesel traction that BR took. Its an interesting story that saw many designs and ideas come into play across the rail network.

Now you have to do a video on the Class 55 Deltics

Fun fact-the Mallard is the fastest recorded steam locomotive. It is heavily suspected that a handful of American Steam Locomotives, including Pennsylvania railriad's T1s, were faster, but official times were never recorded. I suspect N&W J Class and Milwaukee's F7s may also have been able to do it.

Great video, very in depth and I like that you included LMS’s rivalry in there. LMS have argued if they had track similar to what LNER had, they could have beaten Mallard’s record but it’s one of those thing we will never know.

The map shown of the line where the A4 apparently started service shown in the video is actually the line where the concurrent LMS Coronation did service. It is the West Coast Main Line which belonged to the LMS in the Grouping years. The LNER operated the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York and Newcastle and that's where the A4s operated at their introduction. Also, the main reason for Gresley to build the A4 was the race to the North in the first place, a race for having the fastest service between London and Scotland that took up pace after an agreement on limiting train speeds ended in 1932. The Grouping also played a role in this as from then on the LNER owned the full ECML to Edinburgh and the LMS the WCML to Glasgow respectively. The fastest train of the LNER, the Flying Scotsman, had no intermediate stops on its 393 mile journey. Before the grouping trains on these routes would pass over the territory of 2 or more companies. The competition with the Germans was not so much with the SVT 877 but with their attempt at building the fastest steam locomotive, the Baureihe 05, a large Hudson type locomotive of which due to the outbreak of war only 3 would be built, 05 002 reached 124,5 mph after which Mallard did her final record setting high speed run at 126 mph. And no, the Deltic isn't a soulless machine but a unique locomotive with the most complex diesel engines ever in a locomotive, once the most powerful single unit diesel locomotive and with a great share of followers of the also 6 preserved series deliveries, and the prototype DP1 is also preserved.

I live next the Oregon Rail Heritage Center that has four working steam locomotive, two of which are massive 4-8-4 passenger locomotives; Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 and the absolutely beautiful Southern Pacific 4449 . While not as fast as the A4s they are no less impressive, seeing them run is like seeing some rare wild animal up close, they feel alive, they are simply amazing.

What a great presentation! I had no idea...the A4 was very cool looking.... putting the "steam" into steam punk.

I saw and rode on the Sir Nigel Gresley in around 1972 at a place called Herrington in the North East of England, I understand they (the workshop) got it working again, What a machine.

Love this homage to the A4, despite the persistent mispronunciation of Sir Nigel Gresley as Sir Nigel Greesley, although I also know how little Mr Whistler cares about comments on mispronunciations! Always loved steam engines and the LNER A4 Pacific class in particular and so getting to see them all (and have a brief ride behind Bittern in steam) in February 2014 when the Great Gathering moved from the main National Railway Museum site in York to their Locomotion site at Shildon, Co. Durham was awesome.