How Gresley's A4 Pacifics became the World's Fastest Steam Engines

My grandfather was the superintendent of Banff National Park in the late 1920's. One day at dinner he mentioned that there was a British engineer staying in town. Chap's name was Gresley, which meant nothing to him. But my father, a serious train enthusiast even then, was very excited! So my grandfather arranged a visit. Gresley was touched that a small boy so far away in the dominions had heard of him, so he kindly gave my father signed photos of two of his most recent designs. My son has them now.

When Gresley asked the running department for a driver for the Mallard test run, the running department told Gresley, they would supply the best driver they could find. Gresley told the running department that he did not want a good driver, he wanted a fearless driver.

A very well put together documentary worthy of being on National TV, rather than just YouTube.

Therapist: naked Mallard isn't real, it can't hurt you. Naked Mallard: 25:23

Yes, I remember the Great Gathering. My wife and I went to York to see them in all their glory, then they were all transported up to Shildon, were they were all fired up outside of the museum. A sight to behold indeed. This will probably be the last time these remaining class A4’s will be gathered together. What a sight to behold!!!

Just an absolutely well done video! As an American, I have never had much interest in British railways, however I have always had a soft spot for your steam locomotives. The A4s were truly ahead of their time.

There remains an undeniable beauty and glamour to these streamlined steam locomotives. This video is a fitting and enjoyable tribute!

The A4's are pretty, they're graceful, powerful, and styled like no other engine, it's nice to them preserved for all to see. Great video.

The Gresley A4 in Mallard blue is my pick for most beautiful train of all time, and is to this day by far my favourite locomotive in history. This video helped me learn far more than I ever knew previously about this amazing locomotive type. Great job.

A wonderful trip down memory lane. My own personal memory of my one and only encounter of the A-4 Pacifics was the summer of 1954 some where near the east England town of Scunthorpe. I was on the platform with my Cousin Shelia and her husband when one of these engines came barrelling through the station whistle going full blast. It frightened me so much that I flew under Shelia's skirt and hung onto her legs for dear life and shrieking in terror. I was the age 4 and still remember it to this day. My wife insists it caused caused other problems but we won't go into that today. :o)

Oh the thrill I had as a lad watching "Streaks" in Newcastle. My heart would leap when I saw one of these magnificent engines powering down the line towards me and then roaring past. I could never put in to words why they had that effect on me. All I know is that at the age of 66, that thrill remains with me to this day.

When I visited the UK in 2016 the Nigel Gresley looked pretty much like in your photograph at 27:27. It has since been completed and I have seen videos of it running ! Thanks for a very informative piece of history.

I'd love to see what diesels and electric Gressley would have built had he survived the war.

I remember taking a trip with my family to the train museum in York in 1997. I became obsessed with the Mallard, the blue A4. such a beautiful and powerful locomotive

A brilliant video, which deserves a wider viewing than just Youtube. One small nit-pick from a naval point of view: 22:25 in the 1960s, Deltic diesels were used in the Ton class minesweepers - the Hunt class minehunters were not introduced until the 1980s. As an aside, the RN Hunts kept their Deltic diesels until about 2015 (replaced by Caterpillar equivalents), but those sold off to the Greek and Lithuanian navies still have their original engines: so the Deltic diesel has been in continuous naval service for about 65 years.

Brilliant and well executed documentary. Very thorough for the A4s. I love the live video of the Silver Link and the Jubilee. Hard to reckon what a hundred miles an hour looks like until one sees a consist blow through a station in 10 seconds or less

Very much enjoyed this. My Great Uncle drove the Flying Fox many years ago. Thanks for uploading this.

When I was younger, me and my family went on trip to the North Yorkshire Moors for the day. My dad found that the Sir Nigel Gresley (60007) was running that day but didn't think nothing of it, other than he could get some amazing photos of it. It was a part of the first few trains of the day and we weren't going to be bothered if we weren't on the Sir Nigel Gresley one. However, it turned out to be the train that was heading down to Pickering which was the same train we had to get. My dad was buzzing all day long and this was back in the summer of 2013/2014 (I can't really remember that well)

The "Achilles heel" of the Gresley 3 cylinder locomotive classes including the A4 Class, which suffered from overheating of the centre cylinders big end bearing, was cured when BR sent A.J.Cook (ex GWR Swindon) to the Eastern as their new CME, in 1951. Cook quickly discovered that the centre Marine type big end bearing was sometimes being starved of oil which then overheated. So he used the same solution that had been applied to the GWR four cylinder types, by adding a full white metal lining and a felt pad to ensure a film of oil across the whole width of the bearing. The problem on the LNER locos vanished as a result.

Beautiful machines and an excellent commemorative piece, Rory. Your work, as always, top notch with excellent film and stills, your trademark. Thank you.