ALL THINGS CONSIDERED

rive it like you stole it’ was the advice a driver gave to his colleague before the recent attempt to beat the London to Glasgow end-to-end timing record on a Class 390 ‘Pendolino’. The words read just like you would imagine the banter between drivers would be before such an attempt. Whether any similar advice was given to Driver Tom Clarke before he set off with LMS No 6220 in 1937 is not recorded, though Driver Clarke certainly had a similar instinct and famously achieved 114 mph, a world record at the time (or was it an ‘Empire Record’ (?) – to most in the UK then, they were one and the same). Driver Clarke had so hopefully the BBC archives have a record of this famous Crewe driver actually talking about his work. Driver Clarke went on to be made an OBE by George VI at Euston, less than a month after the 6220 record run. (King George disembarked the Royal train and the OBE followed right then. Incidentally, on board the train was his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, now the Queen, a reminder of the span of time she represents).