WITH FULL REGULATOR
In his latest column, Don Benn covers some runs with the recently-retired ‘King of Sapperton’ Ray Poole featuring ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 No. 44871, GWR Castle 4-6-0 No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe and LMS Pacific No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland, plus the record-breaking run from Waterloo to Salisbury behind Merchant Navy No. 35023 Holland- Afrika Line in 1966.
AT the same time as Ray Churchill retired, one of the other footplate greats also hung up his greasetop hat.
Ray Poole, also known as ‘the King of Sapperton’, has given me many good runs over the last 10 years or so, and therefore it is appropriate to include details of three of his runs this time. I will start with the last run of his that I timed, which was the Steam Dreams trip to Worcester on Thursday, May 23, 2019.
In my view it was one of his finest efforts, coaxing a performance from LMS ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 No. 44871 which was well above its power classification, and giving me the highest power figure I have ever recorded with a Class 5 locomotive.
The whole day was a delight as Ray was prepared to run the engine up to its revised rated maximum speed of 65mph wherever possible, giving
