Day-old Rail Record Smashed

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 368, 24 February 1937, Page 8

Day-old Rail Record Smashed

AVERAGE RAISED TO 70 MILES AN HOUR Cheers greeted the L.M.S. express No. 703, as, just one day after it had broken the record for the LondonGlasgow run, it thundered into Euston station, having broken its own record on the return run. Hurtling through the darkness for the last half of the trip, it did the return jouney in 5 hr. 44 min., an improvement of nine minutes on the previous day’s record. The average speed was 70 m.p.h., a world’s record for a long-distance run. The engine, Princess Elizabeth, was pulling an extra coach, giving it a weight of 259 tons compared with the 225 tons of the day before. Every station, village and hamlet turned out to give the express a cheer as it roared through. Just north of Crewe the express put on its fastest spurt, storming along at 95 m.p.h. Wrapped round a bath bun a message of the train’s progress was flung on to the platform as the train roared through Preston. It ran: ‘‘Dirty weather now. Easterly head, wind and torrential rain. Fortunately visibility still good. “Still taking everything in our stride and heaviest part of the .trip over. Optimism everywhere.”