Steam speed records including City of Truro and Mallard

In my world time and distance are absolute although I can see why time can be vague to some, especially teenagers.

 

You never heard of Einstein, @Steve?

Tom

 

But however fast it went, Tom, I don't think it was anywhere near the speed of light!

 

There was definitely a distortion of the space-time continuum in the Wellington area on May 9, 1904, though! Einstein published his first paper on special relativity the following year - co-incidence? I think not ...

Tom

 

If I ever get a time machine City of Truro's footplate on that date will be the second place I will visit. Can someone lend me a stop watch?

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Wasn’t he Rous-marten’s watchmaker?

 

Time isn't linear though - it's logarithmic. It definitely gets faster the older you get

 

But does it compare to the 135mph 'Star' or whatever it was?

 

Are we talking about physics, imagination, psychology, or mind-altering substances (including alcohol)?

 

All of 'em, I think...

 

You’ll be telling us the TARDIS is real next

 

I suspect a grandfather clock would be better and more appropriate for timing Truro…



Simon

 

It amuses me how often Collett's very qualified statement that amounts to 'approximately 120, but not timed accurately' gets turned into 135 by those who seek to debunk it. It is, of course, a common enough rhetorical trick.

 

I once wrote a short science fiction story in which the platelayers who were slow clearing the line in front of 3440 were time travellers with a radar speed gun.

 

https://tardishire.co.uk/

 

More like Turdis

 

(Breaking my rule again, but this is also important...)

You might as well have said "give up on researching history" then, to all of those researchers studying a wide range of fields including, but not limited to, archaeology, medieval history, the first and second world wars, railway history...it's a nonsense that just because you don't see the value in the research, and you want to deal in absolute truths, that you think it is somehow lacking in value.

From studying the dynamometer roll the last year I have learned more about Mallard's run and what actually happened on board, and at the railhead, than I have done in the thirty years which preceded getting the digital copy in front of me. It was never about proving 126mph conclusively (but for me it has cemented my view that 126mph is more likely than unlikely) but more understanding how the whole run unfolded, what were the big issues facing the on board train team, what were the limiting factors, how did this run inform future engineering development across a range of disciplines (including but not exclusively braking from high speed, which is really important, quelle surprise, for high speed train development).

Railway enthusiasts like to deal in absolutes when they don't understand what's being discussed. I loathe that. The whole point of research is to try and understand better, or find that alternative angle that might tell us something more. History is never "finished". I hope in the decades to come someone challenges my work and discusses it and either proves me wrong or improves our understanding better. That's the whole damn point.

 

So the plaque on the loco should have said ' On the balance of probabilities.......'. Only joking.

A lifetime of observing decision makers and their treatment of evidence has taught me that the single biggest point of fracture between the analysts and the decision folks concerns the understanding of distributions and confidence intervals. Fast forward eighty years from 4468 and this is part of the HS2 story.

 

Not just enthusiasts, and this is very relevant to all fields.


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