Could Bill Hoole have broken the steam speed record with “Sir Nigel Gresley”?

Yesterday (7 June) marked the 45th anniversary of the death of King’s Cross driver Bill Hoole. Following my posts on Twitter and Facebook, I received numerous messages asking if I could write a blog post about Bill – especially his exploits in 1959, when he took 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley up to 112mph, the post war steam speed record.

Born in Merseyside on 27 July 1894, Bill was the second son of William and Martha Hoole. Leaving Kirkdale Day Industrial School, aged just 13, Bill junior’s first job was as a dock messenger for the Midland Railway.

At the outbreak of WW1, Bill was quick to volunteer – serving in the Royal Field Artillery. During fighting in France, Bill suffered from shrapnel injuries – one in the left forefinger and two in his side – as well as suffering lung damage as a result of a mustard gas attack.

In 1920 he married Dolly Ratley and passed out as a driver at Neasden in 1926, being made redundant the next year and transferring to King’s Cross – from where he retired in 1959. Bill wasn’t off the footplate for long though, becoming a driver on the Ffestiniog Railway in July of that year. His footplate career didn’t eventually end until 1967, when Bill suffered a stroke. He still pottered around the railway – living in a cottage wth Dolly at Boston Lodge, near the works. After Dolly died in 1976, Bill moved to Birmingham, where he could be cared for by one of his daughters.

Just prior to his retirement, Bill put in a stirring performance with 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley” taking his regular A4 up to 112mph, but could he have broken the 126mph record held by “Mallard”?

The arrival of class 40s on the East Coast Main Line in 1958, made it clear that the A4s would not be able to cling onto their top-link work for much longer and it was decided to run a farewell high-speed journey along the East Cost Main Line – to coincide with the Golden Jubilee of the Stephenson Locomotive Society. As soon as British Rail managers gave their blessing, plans for the run officially swung into action – with 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley” and Bill Hoole being the obvious combination. In late 1958, 60007 entered Doncaster Works for a general overhaul.

Wanting this to be a fitting swan song for the A4s, many discussions were held regarding just how fast 60007 would be allowed to run. At the time 100mph on Stoke Bank was not uncommon, so it was proposed that a higher speed be reached – the civil engineer eventually giving permission for speed limits to be relaxed over certain sections of the route. It was then realised that with diesels not expected to reach a speed higher than 90mph for the following few years, having a steam locomotive travel at a significantly higher speed would not be good PR. After much negotiation, it was agreed that 60007 could reach a maximum of 110mph during the run.

On 23 May 1959, 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley”, with driver Bill Hoole on the regulator, fireman Alf Hancox on the shovel and chief locomotive inspector Bert Dixon on the footplate, along with Alan Pegler, a member of the Easter Region Board, – later to own “Flying Scotsman” – and motive power officer Cyril Palmer, eased its eight coach train out of platform 5 at King’s Cross. By the time 60007 passed Potters Bar, it was travelling at just over 60mph – a blanket 60mph speed restriction being in force south of Potters Bar. North of Stevenage, the speed limit had been relaxed from 90mph to 100mph. All too soon the train arrived at its destination, Doncaster.

On departure from Doncaster, it took just four miles for 60007 to reach 70mph, by Corby Glen the A4 was travelling at 99mph and had reached 109mph by Little Bytham. Having given assurances regarding the safety of the train’s 400 passengers, Alan Pegler was reluctant to allow the A4 to travel much beyond the sanctioned 110mph, so signalled to inspector Bert Dixon, who in turn tapped driver Hoole on the shoulder – a sign for Hoole to ease off. The post-war speed record had been set, with the 12.3 miles between Corby Glen and Tallington being covered in only seven minutes and six seconds – an average of 104mph. The remaining journey into King’s Cross was relatively relaxed – 60007 arriving into King’s Cross four minutes early, having travelled the 156 miles in 137 minutes and 38 seconds.

60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley” was deemed to be a better engine than “Mallard” and “Silver Fox” , the latter having reached 113mph while hauling the Silver Jubilee on 27 August 1936. While the latter two suffered from hot middle ends after their speed runs, 60007 was available for service the next day. Within a few days of 60007’s record breaking run, Bill Hoole took the A4 over 100mph again.

The story doesn’t, however, end there. Although 112mph is officially recorded as the post-war speed record, in November 1955 Bill Hoole was recorded as reaching 117mph with 60007 hauling the Tyne Tees Pullman – well in excess of the official 90mph speed limit. The rather relaxed attitude to the official line speed limit only came to light thanks to a civil engineer onboard the train, who was using a Hallade track recording instrument. The locomotive department became very nervous regarding the information being leaked, so mounted a rearguard action to stop Bill Hoole facing disciplinary action. Managers in the locomotive department claimed, publicly at least, that the accuracy of the Hallade machine could not be trusted to the extent that any action could be taken against driver Hoole. Management did, however, ensure that word reached the Western Region, who were at the time taking their “King” class to over 100mph.

Could 60007 have beaten “Mallard”? Well, Blll Hoole certainly believed he could have driven 60007 faster than 126mph, but does his belief bear up under scrutiny? Before the 1959 run, Bill Hoole had carefully studied the 1938 record breaking run with “Mallard”, concluding that he could do it. Hoole’s belief centred around his 117mph run in 1955 and that being allowed to run 10mph faster than the normally allowed 70mph through Grantham, he could smash the 1938 record. Hoole calculated that as he was able to reach 117mph on Stoke Bank, while adhering to the 70mph Grantham speed limit, if he passed Grantham at 80mph, he would be able to take 60007 up to 127mph – 1mph faster than “Mallard”. Others doubted the validity of this somewhat simplistic approach, pointing out that train rolling resistance does not increase linearly with speed so a direct relationship between impetus and final speed is not valid.

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