All Dwight on the night as sister of Mallard revamped

Visitors to the National Railway Museum (NRM) will now be able to see Dwight D Eisenhower undergoing cosmetic restoration work by experts from Lancashire-based Heritage Painting in the York venue’s workshop.

The Doncaster-built Gresley Pacific is being given a fresh coat of BR green paint in preparation for the anniversary celebrations next year to mark 75 years since Mallard broke the world speed record.

It became the fastest steam locomotive of all time when it reached 126mph on the East Coast Main Line on July 3, 1938 – beating the German record of 124mph set two years earlier.

The centrepiece of the celebrations will be a family reunion in July when all six of the world’s surviving A4 locomotives will be together at the NRM – a sight never seen before.

Fellow transatlantic traveller Dominion of Canada is currently getting a Mallard-style makeover into characteristic garter blue at the National Railway Museum at Shildon.

The locomotives arrived in the UK in October and are on loan to the NRM for two years from the National Railroad Museum in Wisconsin in the USA and Exporail in Montreal in Canada.

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