RACE BY TRAINS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 130, 29 November 1932, Page 7

RACE BY TRAINS

AN ENGLISH RECORD

An L.N.E.R. train set out from Newcastle recently to. catch another train befor© it reached York, and succeeded, covering the eighty miles in sixty-six minutes,,says the "Manchester Guardian."

When the 7.55 a.m. "breakfast-car" express from Scotland left Edinburgh on its way to King's Cross it had to be diverted in Scotland because a quantity of timber had fallen from a goods train ana blocked the line at East Fortune, Haddingtonshire. The train ran via Kelso in consequence, and the diversion caused it to be thirty-seven minutes late on reaching Newcastle, where, in. the ordinary way, a number of other Scottish carriages are joined to the train before it starts on its journey south as the 10.37 a.m. express from Newcastle to King's Cross. As the first part of the train was so late in- arriving, another express started from Newcastle' for London, without waiting for it. The traffic controller at York arranged that the delayed carriages should follow the other train at once., The driver of the delayed train was told to do his best to .catch up the first half of the express before it reached York, while signalmen all along the line were instructed to do all they could to keep the line clear. From Darlington York is forty-four miles, and this was covered in thirtysix minutes, the entire journey at eighty miles taking sixty-six minutes. ' The first half of the train, covering the distance at normal speed, took one hour forf.y-tv.-o minutes, which included stops at Durham and Darlington. It is believed that this constitutes a speed record on the L.N.E.E.

At York the two parts of the train were joined np and it then proceeded in the ordinary way on the last lap of its journey.