GWR 3700 Class 3440 City of Truro
Great Western Railway City Class 4-4-0 locomotive number 3440
City Of Truro was designed by George Jackson Churchward and built at the GWR
Swindon Works in 1903. . It was reputedly the first steam locomotive in Europe to travel in excess of 100 mph , reaching a speed of 102.3 mph whilst hauling the "Ocean Mails" special from
Plymouth to
London Paddington on 9 May 1904. This speed was recorded from the footplate by Charles Rous-Marten, a writer employed by The Railway Magazine, but the journal did not publish the exact figure until 1907: Initially, mindful of the need to preserve their reputation for safety, the railway company allowed only the overall timings for the run to be put into print.
Encyclopedia
Great Western Railway City Class 4-4-0 locomotive number 3440
City Of Truro was designed by George Jackson Churchward and built at the GWR
Swindon Works in 1903. . It was reputedly the first steam locomotive in Europe to travel in excess of 100 mph , reaching a speed of 102.3 mph whilst hauling the "Ocean Mails" special from
Plymouth to
London Paddington on 9 May 1904. This speed was recorded from the footplate by Charles Rous-Marten, a writer employed by The Railway Magazine, but the journal did not publish the exact figure until 1907: Initially, mindful of the need to preserve their reputation for safety, the railway company allowed only the overall timings for the run to be put into print. Furthermore, for the record to have been proven conclusively, the presence of two timekeepers would have been needed and this was not the case. However, the milepost timings provided by Rous-Marten are fully consistent with a speed of 100 mph or just over.
The historical significance of
City of Truro led to its continued survival after withdrawal from service in 1931. It was purchased by the
London and North Eastern Railway and was subsequently displayed at a new museum in
York. In 1957, the locomotive was returned to service by
British Railways and based at
Didcot it was used for hauling special excursion trains, usually on the
Newbury and
Southampton branch line and was renumbered back to 3440.
It was finally retired from traffic in 1961, and passed into the National Collection as a static exhibit. The locomotive was restored once more in 1984 to take part in the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Great Western Railway.
City Of Truro was recently restored to full working order, at a cost of £130,000 to mark the 100th anniversary of its record-breaking run.
In Literature
City of Truro featured as a character in the book
Duck and the Diesel Engine, part of
The Railway Series by the Rev. W. Awdry. The loco has also appeared in the television spin-off
Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.
References
