As plans and funding advance for the line, a new rail speed record, at least for Britain, is expected when it opens some time in the next decade.
Racing to Scotland
Racing to Scotland was an early feature of British steam railway development and during two nineteenth century summers passenger trains belonging to different companies raced along the two main railway lines from London, subsequently called the East Coast Main Line and West Coast Main Line, to Scotland.
Honours were snatched back and forth throughout the race and the main winners were passengers who were offered an increasingly fast journey between the two countries. Engineering also benefited as the companies developed faster locomotives.
Right up until the Second World War, the companies that operated those two lines continued the competition informally, adding luxurious carriages and legendary speed record-beating locomotives, some of which are preserved.
Luxury was put on hold during the Second World War after which the railways were nationalised in 1948 and there was no longer any reason for the race, although the name of one of the competing trains, the Flying Scotsman, is still attached to an east coast main line express. Both lines still operate, with new owners, and the new line is proposed along the route of the second, western, line.
Britain Becomes Railway Nation
Less than 20 years after commercial passenger rail travel began in the 1820s Britain had more than 2000 miles of track, built and operated by a plethora of private companies, several of which had built the rails between London and Scotland.
The first Race took place in 1888 and was between daytime trains from London to Edinburgh. The second Race, in 1895, was between London and Aberdeen. On the last stretch of the latter race the competing lines ran on either side of the North Sea inlet called the Montrose Basin and there were reports of trains racing for the finishing line within sight of each other.
The locomotives in the first race were relatively primitive but in the second the Great Northern Railway, owner of the eastern main line, used its famous Stirling Single, designed by engineer Patrick Stirling with a pair of eight foot diameter driving wheels. Shortly afterwards the western line, operated by the London and North Western Railway, weighed in with its locomotive Hardwicke.
Derailment Hits Race Plans
But the year after the second race a serious derailment at Preston – roughly half way along the western main line – led to calls for safety rather than speed, together with complaints that trains were arriving in Aberdeen too early for connecting services. The companies involved eventually agreed speed limits which remained in force until 1932. Services centred on timetabled services and there were no more formally organised races.
Shortly before the speed limit expired, in 1927, the London North Eastern Railway started its non-stop Flying Scotsman service from London to Edinburgh. Engineers had devised a corridor tender to allow the train crew to change at speed.
Race Lives On in Record Bids
But the spirit of the Race to the North lived on. Just before the first Flying Scotsman ran the rival London Midland and Scottish Railway launched a rival non-stop service from London to both Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In the 1930s Germany launched its Flying Hamburger high-speed diesel railcar service but after examining the German example, British engineers decided to press ahead with steam locomotion. A test run by the Flying Scotsman locomotive saw the first ever authenticated speed of 100mph and shortly afterwards a second locomotive nudged 108mph. Improved engineering and streamlining with London North Eastern trains like the Silver Link and Coronation saw speeds of 112mph. The rival London Midland and Scottish countered with a 114mph run with its Coronation Scot train, also hauled by streamlined locomotives.
But in 1938 one of the LNER’s streamlined locomotives, Mallard, became the all-time leader after reaching 126mph to become the fastest steam locomotive of all time. Both it and the Flying Scotsman are preserved, Mallard at York Railway Museum and the Scotsman at various locations where it is often run.
The next speed record was not set until 1979 when the nationalised British Railways ran its revolutionary, and disastrously unsuccessful, Advanced Passenger Train from London to Glasgow at an average speed of more than 100mph.
Back in Private Hands
When Britain’s railways were returned to private hands in the 1990s two different companies again operated the two main lines to Scotland, but they have rarely advertised themselves as direct competitors and the race to the north, for the moment, is suspended.
A New Race?
When the new high speed line is completed, however, new speed records are expected to be set.
Sources: UK National Railway Museum, Channel 4 (website "Speed Machines"), Racing Trains (Sutton Publishing 1995).
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