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There are two claimants of the record for the first steam loco to exceed 100 mph. ‘City’ Class 4-4-0 3440 City of Truro was timed by Rous-Marten at 102.3 mph down Wellington bank with the Ocean Mails from Plymouth on 9th May 1904. This claim is still subject to much debate. However, a postal worker on the train used his stopwatch to time 99 to 100 mph, so a speed very close to 100 mph must certainly have been attained. It was another 30 years, on 30th November 1934, before Flying Scotsman made the first authenticated run at over 100 mph with accurate dynamometer car readings. In this video, we see both locomotives at work in the early part of the 21st Century.

City of Truro was restored to mainline working order in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its famous run. After a test run on 3rd May 2004, the loco is seen hauling the anniversary special from Bristol to Kingswear on 8th May, and the return 2 days later. On 30th November 2004, a special train from Plymouth to Truro, carrying the Minister of Transport, was commissioned by the Strategic Rail Authority for the opening of the re-doubled line from Burngullow to Probus (between St.Austell and Truro), to be hauled at its specific request by City of Truro. This led to a number of special workings to get the train into Cornwall and back. Most significantly, it gave the opportunity for 3440 to haul a train over the infamous South Devon banks for the first time for more than 40 years. These positioning runs are recorded, along with the special train itself, and then the return of the loco from Plymouth to Bristol. 3440 concluded its mainline activity with a circular trip from Tyseley to Stratford, Leamington and Coventry on 29th December 2004.

By coincidence, Flying Scotsman had made a trip over the Leamington – Coventry line a couple of years earlier, significant because this line rarely sees steam specials. Flying Scotsman’s last restoration to mainline working prior to its purchase by the NRM was in 1999. It is seen making its first run with double chimney and smoke deflectors, albeit in a non-authentic LNER livery as 4472, immediately prior to the turn of the Century, then during 2000 making a trip to the Newton Abbott Festival of Transport. A highlight of this Festival was the use of 0-6-0PT No. 9600 on a number of runs between Paignton and Heathfield, some of which are illustrated in this herein. The programme concludes with views of Flying Scotsman hauling a VSOE Pullman train from Victoria to Stratford-Upon-Avon on 27th March 2002.