Thread by @garius

My favourite example of how 'leaky' the railways are actually dates back to the 1920s.

Let me tell you the story of the Flying Scotsman's top secret (or rather NOT so top secret) tender... /1

https://twitter.com/chris_railway/status/1014089593266765824

So its the twenties, and the 'great race' to the north has once again broken out between @LNER and its rivals. The key goal: make the public use YOUR trains to get to Scotland, by making them seem faster and more glamorous. /2

Enter Sir Nigel Gresley, big chief loco over at LNER. Sir Nige spends a lot of time thinking about this problem: How do you speed up your trains when there really is little tech difference between you and your rivals?

And then he twigs it: YOU DON'T STOP TO CHANGE CREWS /3

That, he realised, was one of the few remaining reasons to stop - you could carry more coal and water but you COULDN'T change crews at speed. There was no way to get them past the tender (full of said coal) to the engine. /4

And then has a brainwave: Make the tender BIGGER, but also stick a covered corridor in it! That way the replacement crew can stay on the train, but then move THROUGH the tender when required! /5

So worried is Sir Nige about this idea leaking to the opposition, that he decides to test the principle himself at home. That night, in the dining room, he pulls all his chairs together and starts crawling under them to gauge required space.

God knows what his kids thought. /6

Eventually he settles on about 18in wide and 5ft tall. In top, top secrecy, he orders such a tender to be built in Doncaster. And we're talking SECRET - "you're fired if you talk about this" type secret. On no account does he want the LM&SR finding out about this. /7

The result: A 56 ton beast of a tender, capable of holding 5000 gallons of water and nine tons of coal. It also had a tiny corridor, lit by the light from the firebox, through which the crew could move. /8

Of course now they've got to trial this thing. Still in absolute secrecy they hook it up to the back of a run-down old Ivatt Atlantic for test trials figuring no one will pay that any attention. The driver and crew are similarly sworn to top secrecy. /9

They also subtly change the timetables to make sure the test train has a clear road.

And I MEAN a clear road. No stop signals for the whole run. /10

So, in absolute secrecy, off trundles this rubbish looking Atlantic with its top-secret new tender in tow. All is going well until just outside Retford when...

...OMG WTF. STOP SIGNAL! /11

The driver, confused, jumps out the cab and heads to the signal box. With forced nonchalance he asks the signalman why he's being held - because he thought he had a clear road. /12

"Oh you've got a clear road all right" Says the signalman, breezily.

"I just wanted to take a look at your new corridor tender." /13

LESSON: Railway workers are - more often and not - railway geeks as well. And that means they are TERRIBLE at keeping secrets.

This is something railway press offices (and the modern heirs of Sir Nigel) should really try to remember when dealing with us geeky journos 😂😂😂 /14

Oh, and yes - the corridor tender (despite not being as secret as Sir Nigel perhaps wanted) did its job perfectly.

On 1 May 1928 @LNER's Flying Scotsman made the first ever, non-stop run from London - Edinburgh, earning its place in the annals of railway history 🚂🚂🚂🎖️ /END