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Forward Thinkers: Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley CBE, designer of the fastest-ever steam locomotive

Professional Engineering - From the archive, Issue 4, 2022

Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley CBE, designer of the fastest-ever steam locomotive and 51st president of the IMechE
Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley CBE, designer of the fastest-ever steam locomotive and 51st president of the IMechE

On the morning of 3 July 1938, most of the Mallard 4468 crew had no idea they were about to make history.

According to the National Railway Museum, which now houses the locomotive, it was not until the train was about to leave Wood Green in north London that the technical team was told what driver Joe Duddington and fireman Thomas Bray already knew – that the purpose of the journey was to set the British speed record for steam locomotives. Not even Duddington and Bray knew that a world record would still be standing 84 years later, and was likely to stand forever. 

The attempt had been authorised by Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley, designer of the Mallard and other pioneering locomotives. Born in Edinburgh in 1876 and educated at Marlborough College, Gresley’s career in rail started with an apprenticeship at the Crewe works of the London and North Western Railway. 

He joined the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1898 and was put in charge of the test room following an apprenticeship. After becoming manager of the Newton Heath Carriage Works in 1902, he moved to the Great Northern Railway, where he became locomotive engineer at Doncaster in 1911, a role that was renamed chief mechanical engineer. With the grouping of rail companies in 1923, Gresley became chief mechanical engineer of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).

Innovative designs

The journey to the world speed record started in 1912, when Gresley’s first original locomotive design – a two-cylinder 2-6-0 engine – was built. Ten years later he completed the first of the famous three-cylinder 4-6-2 Pacific engines, many of which were built by the LNER in Darlington and Doncaster. These were regularly improved with modifications such as increased boiler pressures.

In 1925 he introduced the Mikado, a 2-8-2 locomotive for heavy freight traffic. That design was adapted nine years later for the Cock o’ the North, a larger wheeled engine for heavy express work. 

In 1935, the Silver Link locomotive was built and entered service on the first completely streamlined train in the UK, making the 232-mile journey from London to Darlington in three hours and 18 minutes. 

Three years later, the Silver Link was followed by the Mallard, another A4 class. “Its innovative streamlined wedge-shaped design bore no resemblance to the preceding A3 class (of which Flying Scotsman was an example) and was very much a product of 1930s Britain,” according to the National Railway Museum. “At this time speed was seen as the ultimate symbol of modernity.”

The streamlined 4-6-2 engine clinched the world record as it raced down Stoke Bank, south of Grantham in Lincolnshire. The crew maintained a speed of 120mph for five miles, with a short burst to 126mph that secured the locomotive’s place in the history books. 

Locomotive legacy

The establishment of a locomotive testing station in Rugby was another major achievement for Gresley. “He had long believed this to be of great importance to locomotive engineering in the country,” according to the IMechE archive. Work commenced in 1937, but was postponed by the outbreak of war – unfortunately, Gresley did not live to see its completion.

His efforts during the First World War, to reorganise the Doncaster works for the production of munitions, were rewarded with a CBE in 1920. He received a knighthood in 1937 and also served on several government committees, including on automatic train control and the electrification of railways. He was made president of the IMechE in 1935, and was twice president of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers. He died in 1941 at the age of 65.


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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

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