Locomotive makeover

The sister locomotive of the record-breaking Mallard is now receiving the final flourishes to its public makeover in the workshop of the National Railway Museum.

Transatlantic traveller Dwight D Eisenhower has been undergoing cosmetic restoration work after moving into the York museum workshop earlier this month, and the project is now in its closing stages. The Doncaster-built Gresley Pacific is being given a fresh coat of BR green paint in preparation for 2013's anniversary celebrations. Next year marks 75 years since Mallard broke the world speed record and became the fastest steam locomotive of all time.

The centrepiece of the celebrations will be a spectacular family reunion in July. All six of the surviving A4 locomotives in the world will be gathered together at the National Railway Museum in York - a sight never seen before.

Dwight D Eisenhower and Dominion of Canada 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.

On the third of July 1938, the mighty blue Mallard 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. With Hitler's Third Reich then in the ascendancy it was a matter of national pride that a British locomotive captured the world speed crown. No 4468 Mallard was recently built at LNER's Doncaster Works and was chosen as the perfect vehicle for the endeavor because it was the first of the class to be fitted with a double chimney.