A train fit for a queen

LNR A4 Nr 60009, it can but may not cruise at over 100km/h.

KEEPING it short, Queen Elizabeth yesterday told her subjects her ­becoming the longest reigning ­British monarch was not a record she ever aspired to.

The British queen yesterday obliged the masses who wanted a event to mark her record reign by interrupting her holiday at Balmoral in the Scottish Highlands to ­inaugurate a new £294 million ­Scottish Borders Railway.

While barely patient with all that noblesse oblige, the queen did get to ride from Edinburgh in another stately record holder, the Union of South Africa LNER Class A4 steam locomotive Nr 6009.

The elegant A4 steam locomotive was designed by Nigel Gresley in 1937 — the year her father King George VI was crowned.

These streamlined locomotives have since come to symbolise ­Britain’s dominance on rail, as well as that era’s fascination with speed.

There are today only six of ­Gresley’s LNER Class A4 ­locomotives in working condition and licensed
to run on mainlines.

Ironically, the queen’s departure by helicopter to ride on what is still one of the word’s fastest steam trains was delayed by thick mist over ­Balmoral yesterday, and of course her ride in the A4 did not get close to the world speed record for a steam locomotive of 125 mph — more than 201 km/h — set by the 4468 Mallard A4 on July 3, 1938.

Pietermaritzburg’s many train spotters will however be quick to ­remind that the unofficial record was actually 126 mph, as marked on the dynamometer car.

Originally numbered 4488 and ­also named after a bird — the Osprey — Nr 6009 was built later than the Mallard and only named the Union of South Africa when Britain wanted to show political goodwill and ­support for the new Union of South Africa. When apartheid was at its height in the early 1990s, Nr 6009 however went back to being called Osprey. She only got her “working” name back after being sold as scrap to John Cameron in 1966.

Cameron has since had 6009 restored to mint condition at its base at Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley Railway, where 6009 regularly appears on mainline steam specials.

While the queen yesterday said she personally has no truck with her long reigning record, one suspects she did appreciate the speed record still held by the grand old steam ­ladies of her teenage years.