It was always full steam ahead for the Mallard

SIR – The promotional article (July 3) by Royal London – marking the day that the Mallard A4 class of locomotive achieved 125.88 mph – suggests that in normal operation these locomotives “never even approached 90 mph over the 1.5 million miles they covered before being retired in 1963”.

In the Fifties I lived 12 miles from the point where Mallard achieved its greatest speed, and I can assure Royal London that Sir Nigel Gresley’s A4 class regularly surpassed 90 mph while descending Stoke Bank on an almost daily basis.

In addition, an article by Cecil J Allen in the October 1956 edition of

Trains Illustrated magazine recorded three different A4 locomotives – hauling 11, 12 and 13 coaches – attaining speeds of 100, 93 and 92.5 mph at Essendine.

Len Hunter Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire