City of Truro

1903 · GWR 3700 Class · Work 7 of 1,871

City of Truro, 1903, GWR 3700 Class

The GWR locomotive City of Truro racing down Wellington bank with a mail train, Somerset fields either side, first machine credited with one hundred miles per hour.

What it was used for
The mail train from Plymouth to London — the service that produced the best-known unproven record in railway history.
What was new
The claim that she was the first to reach 100 mph, on 9 May 1904, rests on one stopwatch reading by a passenger. The Great Western did not officially assert it for decades. It is famous and unproven.