FAST TRAVELLING

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 91, 14 October 1926, Page 11

FAST TRAVELLING

BRITISH RAILWAY RUN

NEW LOCOMOTIVE DOES 83 MILES AN HOUR.

(United Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, 12th October.

The Lord Nelson, England's most powerful locomotive, made its first public appearance when it drew the Atlantic Coast express on the Southern Railway (formerly L. and S.W.) from Salisbury to London. The maximum speed attained was 83 miles an hour. Eighty-four miles, were covered in 85 minutes. The engine weighs 83 tons, and is designed to draw trains up to 500 tons. c

Tho largest passenger locomotive in the world is a 4-8-2 engine built for the Baltimore and Ohio Railway at their works in Baltimore, U.S.A., last year. Tho weight of the cngiiio is 178J tons, and the tendor 115 tons, while the cylinders are 30 x 30 inches. The fastest railway run on record in the British Isles was made in Kovcmber, 1924, by the "Flying Scotchman," of-the. London and North Eastern Railway, drawn by one of the company's "Pacific" 4-G-2 engines, which covered part of tho way between Biggleswado and Sandy at S9 miles an hour. In 1904 the Great Western 4-4-2 engine Duke of Connaught covered the distance of 118* miles from Bristol to Paddington, via Bath, in 99 minutes 46 seconds, start to stop, an average of 71.3 miles per hour. This included two slowdowns at Bath and Cricklade. Tho 81$ miles from Wooton Bnssctt to Wcstbourno Park were covered in 02 minutes 52 seconds, and tlio average speed of tho journey beyond Hwiudon was about 80 miles an hour, with''a maximum of 91.8 miles per hour nenr Slough. The longest regular non-stop run in Britain is from Paddington (London) to Dcvunport, 220.9 miles in 244 minutes, an average speed of 55.8 miles per hour. The run from'Kwindon to Paddington on the Great Western by tho 3.45 p.w. train, 77.;'. miles, is bookifd at 75 minutes, an average speed of 01.8 miles per hour, in America the longest high-speed non-stop run is claimed by the Michigan Central, between Detroit and Fallsvicw, a distance of 224.7 miles in 243 minutes, an average speed of 55.30 miles and hour. The highest speed attained in Now Zealand is claimed for a Special carrying Sir Joseph Ward, then Minister of Bailways, in 1901, between Bluic and lnvcrcargill, on the occasion of- a visit-of Imperial troops from India. The speed is said to liavctbeen well over sixty miles an hoi^.