Re: #999

Charles McMillan Wrote:
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> #999 running at 112.5 MPH on 36 miles of level
> straight track in Batavia, New York is just as
> believable as Mallard running DOWN Stoke Bank for
> 3000 feet at 125 MPH. (From the National Railway
> Musuem at York. )
Absolutely, except in one case, the speed was recorded on a calibrated speed recording machine, in front of a team of expert locomotive performance analysts. The locomotive was a quite new example of what was, at the time, the best lightweight, thoroughbred racing locomotive in the world. On board the train were the CME of the LNER, various other notable railway executives whose collective testimony is beyond question. The paper roll from that event still exists in the national archives, so does the locomotive, and the dynamometer car come to that. The event was recorded, there are a few photographs. All in all, a fair body of evidence.
In the other case, the feat was timed by non-experts, using manually operated stopwatch, assessing distance by visual/milepost. It was publicised by a reputedly sensationalist news reporter.
Seriously, the one is simply not as believable as the other based on existing evidence.