Winchcombe Tunnel GWR City of Truro train 2009

Postcard

 

• Picture / Image:  3440 City of Truro exits Winchcombe tunnel on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway   (Railway Specials series No. 18)
• Publisher:  Reflections of a Bygone Age
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s):  n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes & Key words: 

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Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

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NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information:

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Great Western Railway (GWR) City Class 4-4-0 locomotive number 3440 City Of Truro was designed by George Jackson Churchward and built at the GWR Swindon Works in 1903. (It was renumbered 3717 in 1912). It was reputedly the first steam locomotive in Europe to travel in excess of 100 mph (160 km/h), although this was not verified by physical recording of speed.

City of Truro is believed to have reached a speed of 102.3 mph (164 km/h) whilst hauling the "Ocean Mails" special from Plymouth to London Paddington on 9 May 1904. This speed was recorded from the footplate by Charles Rous-Marten, a writer employed by The Railway Magazine, but the journal did not publish the exact figure until 1907. Initially, mindful of the need to preserve their reputation for safety, the railway company allowed only the overall timings for the run to be put into print. For the record to have been proven conclusively, the presence of two timekeepers was needed, which did not happen in this case. However, the milepost timings provided by Rous-Marten are consistent with a speed of 100 mph or just over.

The 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) speed record was not officially achieved for another thirty years. On 30 November 1934, Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive to be officially recorded as having reached the speed.

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (GWR) is a volunteer-run heritage railway that has reopened the closed railway line between Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse railway stations in Gloucestershire. It is currently extending to Broadway, Worcestershire, but none of it is actually in Warwickshire. In the long term the GWR could extend even further: south to Cheltenham Spa railway station and even north to Stratford on Avon and thus become the longest heritage railway in England.