Mallard record veteran harry Walker dies
Harry Walker, the last living link with Mallard’s record-setting 126mph run in 1938, passed away on July 20 at the age of 101, just over 80 years since he was a passenger on that historic train.
Harry was part of the Darlington dynamometer car team and was on board that vehicle when it recorded ‘A4’ No. 4468 hitting 126mph on Stoke Bank on July 3 1938. Born in Darlington on May 22 1917, Harry’s father and grandfather were a driver on the North Eastern Railway and inspector at Darlington Bank Top station respectively, and one of Harry’s earliest memories was visiting the footplate of the thennew Raven ‘A2’ No. 2400 City of Newcastle. He also attended the Stockton & Darlington Railway centenary cavalcade in 1925. Harry started his railway career as an office boy at Darlington works, later becoming an electrician looking after prototype locomotives and rolling stock, including early diesel-electric units. After the Second World War, during which he rose to the rank of sergeant in the Royal Engineers. He was appointed to the Testing & Performance Section at Darlington, where he led the dynamometer car team. After nationalisation, he tested Bulleid’s controversial prototype ‘Leader’ 0-6-6-0T No. 36001, and was later involved in the Locomotive Exchange Trials of 1948. During the trials, Harry tested air-smoothed ‘West Country’ No. 34006 Bude, ‘Black Five’ No. 45253 and ‘Modified Hall’ No. 6990 Witherslack Hall over the Great Central Main Line, and was reunited with the Hawksworth 4-6-0 at the preserved Great Central Railway for his 99th birthday in 2016.
Later in his career, the British Railways Board sent Harry to meet Alan Turing to discuss the potential of introducing computers into the railway industry, which led to BR becoming the first railway in the world to run a virtual train over a virtual network. Harry retired from BR in 1981.