FOLLOWING up on your‘Castles Centenary’issue (August), on September 10, 1967, along with my friend NeilTreadwell, I joined the GMRS special from King’s Cross to Newcastle and return. The outward journey was with No. 4472 Flying Scotsman and its two tenders, with No. 7029 Clun Castle doing the return honours as far as Peterborough, where a BrushType 4 (Class 47) took over.
The overriding memory for me is that of Clun being given her head on the racing stretch between Darlington andYork. Speed accelerated rapidly, with plenty of those on board timing the speed between the ¼ mileposts. With the speed being calculated as, well, let’s just say faster than the loco was permitted to do on the mainline, the stewards came through the train ordering all stopwatches to be put away and that no timings were ever to be published.
So what speed did Clun attain? If any illicit timings are out there, is 56 years enough time for them now to be published without reparations? If so, I would love to see one via the editor.