Britain’s Prince Charles is to become patron of a series of events at the National Railway Museum.
The facility in York, North England, are to stage a ”spectacular season” to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Mallard breaking the world steam speed record, and Charles has agreed to lend his support to the event, which has been dubbed Mallard 75.
The highlight of the event will be an ”international family reunion” of Mallard and its five surviving sister A4 Pacific Class locomotives, which will see the iconic trains gathered together for a ‘Great Gathering’ around the Great Hall turntable from July 3 to 17.
A spokesperson for the museum said: ”Two of the Doncaster-built locomotives, Dominion of Canada and Dwight D Eisenhower, have been temporarily repatriated from North America to take part in the anniversary celebrations.”
”The duo are on loan to the National Railway Museum for two years from the National Railroad Museum in Wisconsin, USA and Exporail, the Canadian National Railway Museum in Montreal.”
Explaining the feat of the Mallard 75 years ago, she added:
”The steam legend was recorded as reaching the awe-inspiring speed of 126mph on the East Coast Main Line, breaking the existing German record of 124 mph set in 1936.”