City of Truro 102.3

Review of this 102.3 minute DVD by Ian Crowder

I had been looking forward to seeing this DVD which has been in the process of production for a long time and was eventually published early this year. Now that City of Truro is back at the GWR and was billed to star in the Churchward 150 celebrations on 15th and 16th September – the engine being one of G J Churchward’s first products for the Great Western Railway.

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway co-operated with Oakwood Video during the early stages of the making of this comprehensive DVD. It is a well-made documentary that follows the story of the third renaissance of a locomotive that owes its survival to a hotly-disputed 100mph-plus dash down Wellington Bank on the Great Western main line, on 4th May 1904.

The story is all about speed and rivalry. Speed has been an obsession of railways ever since Stephenson’s Rocket broke the 30mph barrier and in its introductory chapter, the programme puts City of Truro’s remarkable performance into context with 21st century rail travel – for instance, the French record-holding TGV that topped 320mph on trial in normal service, daily exceeds 180mph. It points out the achievements of, amongst others, Coronation Scot; Flying Scotsman; Mallard; the APT; Inter-City 125; and looks back to Brunel’s broad gauge which, in 1845, was carrying ordinary trains travelling at 60mph-plus – an achievement that the standard-gauge took years to emulate.

This history literally flashes before the viewer’s eyes at perhaps an uncomfortably fast pace before it settles on the entry of George Jackson Churchward, CME of the Great Western and who arguably, put the word ‘Great’ into the railway’s name. Next follows a summary of how Churchward’s predecessor, William Dean, had produced locomotives capable of free and fast running and the growing influence of Churchward as his deputy. Churchward went on to improve Dean’s still relatively-new double-frame Atbara class 4-4-0 which seemed to be breaking speed, economy and endurance records almost daily. On this highly successful base, Churchward put his new standard No. 4 boiler and with other modifications, created the City class. 10 Cities were built from new and nine converted from the Atbaras and thus the legend was born. The commentary continues to explain that the Cities immediately set about shattering records. For example, in July 1903, the brand-new City of Bath whisked the Royal Train non-stop from Paddington to Plymouth in 3 hours 53 minutes at an average speed of 63.4mph over the 264 miles – a stunning performance that was not bettered for 30 years. But it was sister locomotive, City of Truro, that stole the thunder when, at 13 months old, achieved 100mph. Or did it?

This achievement is set against the bitter rivalry between the Great Western and the London & South Western for the Atlantic mails traffic. That May day in 1904, an extraordinary legend was born and it has been difficult to separate truth from folklore ever since. The narrative explains that Driver Clements most certainly did achieve something outstanding. But did he take his locomotive and train over a quarter of a mile in 8.8 seconds and into the record books with a claimed speed of 102.3 mph (hence the title of the DVD)? He needed just a further quarter of a mile to confirm – but the train was approaching a group of platelayers in the four-foot necessitating a heavy brake application and that was that. Whatever was achieved it guaranteed the survival of the locomotive but only thanks to the LNER which bought it for display in its new railway museum in York. The Great Western was not one for preserving the past – rather preferring to look to the future. As a result, many locomotives were cut up that really shouldn’t have – including examples from the broad-gauge era. City of Truro would certainly have gone the same way if the GWR had its way.

So City of Truro survived and the story now turns to the engine’s third return to active service (the first was in 1957, the second in 1985 for the Rail 150 celebrations). 2003 saw ‘Truro’ in steam once again at the NRM and running-in on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. There are some nice sequences of the engine at Toddington and at Cheltenham (non on the running line, though) with mention of Steam Railway magazine’s involvement in attracting donations. The purpose was to get this centenarian back on the main line to celebrate 100 years since those 8.8 seconds of sparkling running. “But consider this,” says the narrator. “It took another 30 years before Flying Scotsman marked 100mph – a locomotive which, in design, was a world away from City of Truro.”

Thus City of Truro leaves Toddington and there follows some excellent lineside footage of the engine’s first tentative runs out on the main line, from Tyseley, and leading to Ocean Mail 100 – the out and return trains either side of the actual date of the centenary (on the centenary itself, the Bristol-Plymouth line was in possession of engineers, which at the time drew considerable criticism).

‘Truro’ made a cautious departure from Bristol on the outward run because of persistent drizzle but she was giving her all on the ascent of Whiteball, topping the summit at 24mph as the gradient stiffens from 1 in 90 to 1 in 80. At Dawlish Warren, an estimated 15,000 people turned out to greet the centenarian locomotive – the narrator pointing out that no-one under the age of 80 would remember the Cities in service.

On the centenary of the 100 mph-plus run itself, 9th May, the locomotive was confined to the Paignton-Kingswear line but the subsequent return trip to Bristol departed from Kingswear in great anticipation.

The next sequence very effectively puts ‘Truro’s’ historic achievement into context, with quotes from Charles Rouse-Martin, who recorded the 102.3 mph record and was a correspondent for The Railway Magazine. The reason for these fast mail trains is explained: and how the GWR was instrumental in diverting the American mail ships from Liverpool to Plymouth, thus trimming several hours off the time from New York to London. The quest for speed was evident on the ocean, too – with keen competition between skippers for the ‘Blue Riband’, then held by the Deutschland for the fastest Atlantic crossing.

There are some very evocative photographs shown of the ships, ocean terminal at Plymouth and the passenger facilities – but the GWR did not have this traffic to itself.

The London & South Western Railway had its own terminal at Plymouth and with its T9 class 4-4-0s – aptly nicknamed ‘Greyhounds’ – and the luxury five-coach corridor ‘Eagle Express’ served the ships of the American Line, whose directors didn’t think much of the Great Western’s comparatively poor ocean terminal facilities. And so the rivalry between the companies was set. While the Great Western route was longer than the LSWR’s, the former benefited from the Bristol-Paddington ‘billiard table’.

Both railways sought to steal the PR initiative too – hosting journalists on their trains, including Rouse-Martin, who is described as a ‘speed crank’. The railway companies both sought to get to London faster than the other and the LSWR and GWR exchanged the record between them, ever trimming minutes off the journey time. The LSWR drivers were guilty of flouting speed restrictions and that effectively brought the competition to an end. But on 3rd May 1905, the GWR indulged in one last hurrah with Rouse-Martin recording the performance. The train left Plymouth with its cargo of 1,085 sorted mailbags and a consignment of gold, in five vehicles (including a bullion van) in total weighing 148 tons. Hauled out of Millbay dock by a tank locomotive, no. 3440 City of Truro was coupled to the front at Millbay Crossing and Driver Moses Clements eased open the regulator on his journey into the record books.

Rouse-Martin explains his ‘despair’ at being gagged by the GWR on the top speed he recorded on the descent of Wellington bank, having to content himself with point to point timings and terms such as ‘the fastest run on the race of the Earth’. Given public concerns about safety the GWR was perhaps understandably reticent at allowing the 100 mph-plus achievement to be published. However, a postal worker – one William Kennedy – also recorded the performance, putting the top speed at ‘between 99 and 100 mph’ and the achievement was, in fact, published in Plymouth’s Daily Mercury newspaper. The full account of the run appeared four years later in The Railway Magazine but was not acknowledged by the GWR until 18 years after the event.

There follows an excellent description of the moment the top speed was attained, City of Truro storming the summit of Whiteball at 63 mph, after which the speed ‘was very high and a very smooth ride’ as the 102.3 was reached. At the crucial moment, Driver Clements braked heavily as three platelayers in the four-foot ‘in imminent peril’ stepped out of the way just in time. But what was and what might have been attained? That’s a topic that the railway media has never stopped talking about and doubtless will continue to be debated in the future.

The narrative notes that the GWR had placed five locomotives at strategic locations along the line in case of problems, including Dean 4-2-2 no. 3065 Duke of Connaught, at Bristol which in the event, took the train on to Paddington because of concern about sufficiency of coal in City of Truro’s tender. Arguably, the honours should equally go to that locomotive as it took the train to Paddington with sustained 80mph running – the 119 miles from Pylle Hill Junction to Paddington covered in just 99 minutes. - a performance not bettered until the advent of the King class.

And what of the LSWR? It continued to run its Eagle Express but was no longer racing the GWR. Nevertheless, the non-stop run to Waterloo was struck by disaster on 1st July 1906 when the train derailed on the sharp reverse curves at Salisbury, killing 28 people. Since then every passenger train has been booked to stop at Salisbury and in 1910, the LSWR pulled out of the boat traffic completely, closing its Plymouth ocean terminal.

Returning to the present, there is some stunning cinematography of the Ocean Mails 100 train, marking the centenary of ‘Truro’s’ record-breaking run and the images and sounds of the engine working hard are not spoiled by the intrusion of commentary during crucial tracks or by silly music. It’s just pure, unadulterated, spine-tingling footage.

That may be the end of the Ocean Mails celebrations but there is more to come on this packed DVD. It includes Railfest at the National Railway Museum; runs to Scarborough and the return to Tyseley from where it ran a Shakespeare Express. The engine then runs to Didcot in the company of Rood Ashton Hall before heading west again for short spell at Bodmin before taking a special, five-coach train filled with invited guests, from Bristol to Plymouth - marking the re-doubling of the line west of Truro..

During its run up Dainton – for the first time in 40 years – this doughty 4-4-0 sliced 8 seconds of the previous preservation best for the climb, held by SR Merchant Navy 35005 Canadian Pacific. The run is comparable in terms of grate area per ton of train and proves that City of Truro is still no slouch. At Truro, the locomotive met the HST of the same name, which was rededicated at a short ceremony. The last time no. 3440 visited the city was in 1961.

On the continuing run, some of which is recorded from a helicopter (this is accompanied by music for obvious reasons), Truro crosses a Virgin train running in the opposite direction, officially opening the newly-relaid line between Truro and St. Austell.

On December 3rd, Truro returned to Bristol from Plymouth’s North Road station, taking the route over which more than a century before, it had run on that momentous non-stop to Bristol. The engine makes a spectacular display as it tackles Dainton and Whiteball with comparative ease – rounding off an extremely well researched and produced documentary.

For me, some of the commentary was a little hurried and it needed a couple of viewings to take it all in. But that is more than made up for with some outstanding lineside sequences that have been cleverly edited to bring home the historic significance of this wonderful little locomotive.

Whatever your views, City of Truro achieved something remarkable all those years ago and as a result, the engine survives for us all to enjoy today. The film concludes with suggested further reading material and, of course, you can see the locomotive on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway and at other venues it visits from time to time.

A City class 4-4-0 thought to be Atbara class rebuild no. 3403 Hobart passing Old Oak Common in 1911 the engine has yet to be fitted with a top feed. (photo courtesy Peter Treloar Collection)

An unidentified City near Twyford with heavy express, the locomotive appearing in final form. (photo courtesy Peter Treloar Collection)

City of Truro leaving a steam trail along Dawlish Warren on 3^rd December 2004 with the best Ocean Mails re-run (photo: Bob Sweet)

City of Truro doing what she does best - galloping through the Warwickshire countryside at Clattercoat near Fenny Compton with the Birmingham-Bristol Cornish Riviera Express on 26^th November 2004.

No. 3434 City of Birmingham with a Cornish express and in original condition. (photo courtesy Peter Treloar Collection)

No. 3436 City of Chester gets the 3.25 to Birkenhead under way from Paddington, believed to be taken in the summer of 1920. (photo courtesy Peter Treloar Collection)

No. 3442 City of Exeter near Oxford with a cross -country Wolverhampton to Weymouth semi-fast. (photo courtesy Peter Treloar Collection)

No. 3440, City of Truro. A well-known photograph of the locomotive taken at WestvournePark when new and in original condition (photo courtesy Peter Treloar Collection)

City of Truro 102.3
The return of a Great Western legend

Price £15.95 from the GWR station shop at Toddington.
Or by mail order: please send cheque for £16.95 (including post and packing) to:

The Shop
The Railway Station
Toddington
Gloucestershire
GL54 5DT

With thanks to Andrew Kennedy of Oakwood Video Library: www.oakwoodv.co.uk