World Record Officially the world’s longest-running railway series, established in 1901
IT was 9.20pm on Thursday, August 30, 1934 at London Euston as ‘Royal Scot’ No. 6152 The King’s Dragoon Guardsman coasted into the station with the ‘Midday Scot’. Seventeen-year-old Michael Cobb observed its arrival, blissfully unaware of what fate had in store for him – awaiting evacuation from Dunkirk six summers hence and four years later his ship being torpedoed, or that he would then rise to the rank of colonel in an illustrious military career.
Just now, he was more interested in pursuing his railway hobby, undertaking a journey from home in Rye on the south coast of Kent, over-night in London, then continuing the following day to Glasgow Central. He had resolved to record his adventure in a handwritten account which, some 88 years later, was bequeathed to the Friends of the Newton Abbot Railway Studies Library, whose secretary Graham Walker would deliver it to the Friends’ president
- The Railway Magazine’s Practice and Performance correspondent.
Young Cobb would eventually specialise in military survey work and, in retirement, complete a famous (and highly recommended by The RM) railway atlas that would earn him a Cambridge University PhD at the remarkably advanced age of 91.
Back in that late summer of 1934, he retreated to what he describes as his ‘very nice bedroom’ in the Euston Hotel to begin his narrative. I have woven into his account some similar runs taken from the Railway Performance Society (RPS) archive. None is an exact match for Michael Cobb’s adventure, but it is hoped that they will enhance readers’ appreciation of that pre-Second World War scene.
Then, in August 2022, I embarked on a journey that would mirror the 1934 trip as far as possible, the conclusions reached appearing at the end of Michael Cobb’s description. ‘MC’ is Michael Cobb’s account and ‘JH’ precedes my comments.
“Of note, today’s Class 171 DMU’s top speed was only 5mph higher than that of the SECR L Class 4-4-0”
Rye to Victoria
MC (Thursday, August 30, 1934): Left mum at Rye and took the 3.24pm to Ashford and the 4.2pm to Victoria via Maidstone. Full train and so had an unenjoyable run. Otford and all stations to Bickley were being enlarged for electric trains and at Swanley Junction they were making a huge opening in a cutting apparently for a sub-station. Gained 2min Bromley to Victoria despite having four different signal checks. Had old ‘L’ 4-4-0 No. 1761 to Ashford and ‘L1’ 31769 to Victoria.
JH: Table 1 shows two runs timed by the doyen of prewar Southern steam recorders, S A W Harvey, whose collection was loaned to the RPS from the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society collection. Michael’s ‘old’ Class L, the design dating back all of 20 years, remained capable of working his 1934 light train up to 55mph. The changeover to a 1926-built ‘L1’ brought an uphill run for most of the 10 miles to Lenham, steepening to 1-in-100. A minimum of 46mph suggests an equivalent drawbar horsepower of 625 before racing down mainly favourable gradients, some at 1-in-80, towards Hollingbourne.
The speed of Mr Harvey’s 1935 train in Table 1 continued to respond to the contours, a brief 70mph
