As No. 22, Mallard simmers in the likely setting of Reading shed in 1948, during the Locomotive Exchanges. NRM
Mallard at Waterloo on June 22 1948, during the Locomotive Exchanges. NRM
The three A4s that took part in the tests between April and June were Mallard No. 60022, now on its fourth boiler and third tender, and with a Flaman speed recorder refitted, No. 60033 Seagull and No. 60034 Lord Faringdon, all fitted with the Kylchap double blastpipe chimney arrangement. On June 8, 1948, Mallard ran on the Waterloo-Exeter route. Despite being held back by a succession of red signals, its train was only 51⁄2 minutes late, and at Axminster, it had reached 82mph. However, Mallard failed after the run and was replaced by Seagull. It also failed during a trial run on the Southern Region.
Mallard’s final reallocation came on April 11, 1948 when it was moved to King’s Cross. It was given a new corridor tender and headed non-stop expresses to Scotland. In mid-1952, the garter blue livery was replaced with British Railways lined Brunswick green, a derivative of the GWR. Mallard hauled the last non-stop ‘The Elizabethan’ from King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley on September 8, 1961. It completed the 3923⁄4-mile journey nearly three minutes early, despite five permanent way slacks and two signal checks.
No. 60022’s finest postwar moment came on September 19, 1961, when it produced one of the highest power outputs reached by a member of its class while taking the 2pm from King’s Cross to Newcastle with 11 coaches. Up the 1-in 440 gradient from Tallington to Essendine on Stoke Bank, scene of its greatest triumph, it reached 78mph, and 82mph as the slopes eased beyond to Corby Glen. The estimated drawbar horse power (edhp) would Numbered 22 at the end of LNER days, Mallard is seen in Doncaster Works on December 2, 1946. NRM
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