Full steam ahead for memorial, say rail campaigners

Published on Friday 4 July 2008 22:08

RAIL campaigners have called for the designer of the world's fastest steam train to have his Edinburgh birthplace commemorated.

The move comes as one of Mallard's sister locomotives steams into Edinburgh today to mark the 70th anniversary of it setting the steam train speed record at 126mph.

Sir Nigel Gresley, the designer of the trains, was born at 34 Dublin Street, but the only plaque highlighting his link with the city is in the booking hall of Waverley Station.

Another of Gresley's A4 class engines, the Union of South Africa, will haul a special train from London to Edinburgh this evening, carrying 460 passengers who have paid 495 for the return trip. The engine was used for the Forth Bridge's centenary celebrations in 1990.

A ceremony will take place at Gresley's birthplace before the train returns south tomorrow.

Howard Johnston, a spokesman for the organisers, called for a plaque for the building. He said: "It is high time that Edinburgh recognised one of its most famous fathers."

Gresley's parents moved to Edinburgh from Derbyshire shortly before he was born in 1876. He became chief engineer of the London and North Eastern Railway, and also designed the Flying Scotsman locomotive.

The streamlined Mallard achieved the world speed record for a steam train – a title it still holds – between Peterborough and Grantham on 3 July, 1938. The locomotive is now at the National Railway Museum in York.

The A4 locomotives ran on services between Edinburgh and London, and latterly between Glasgow and Aberdeen, until they were replaced by diesels in 1966.