Happy Mallard Day, everyone. 86 years ago today, on the 3rd of July in 1938, 4468 Mallard reached 126mph / 203kph between Grantham and Peterborough on the East Coast Main Line; a steam record which remains unbroken to this day. As usual with these records, others claim to have reached or exceeded this speed, but they are sadly unauthenticated.
Mallard never reached this speed while in regular service, of course: this was a one-off record-breaking attempt, but the feat was enough to ensure she was preserved after her well-earned retirement in 1963. These days she lives as an exhibit at the National Railway Museum in York, a five-minute walk from York railway station. Go take a look, if you're able.
The National Railway Museum's 'Curator with a Camera' mini-series takes a detailed look inside the locomotive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYwFavyERsI...here's the obligatory Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A4_4468_Mallard...and of course there's a small marker commemorating the record on the East Coast Main Line, which can be briefly seen from passing trains.
