MALLARD, the world’s fastest steam locomotive, is to go on tour along the East Coast Mainline next month.

As part of the engine’s 75th anniversary of breaking the speed record, which has seen more than 100,000 visitors flock to the National Railway Museum, Mallard will travel first to Grantham, the place where the world speed record was set in 1938 on the downwards gradient of Stoke Bank on September 8 or 9.

There, it will be the centrepiece of a Festival of Speed, and it will be joined by other historic exhibits as part of a free east coast Story of Speed, including streamlined 1930s racing cars Next, the legendary locomotive will return to the place of its birth, Doncaster, for the annual St Leger Festival. Mallard will be on display at Freightliner Ltd’s Railport depot on September 14 and 15 during a free event.

Mallard will then join other Doncaster-built locomotives to celebrate 160 years of the Doncaster Works at the Barrow Hill Roundhouse, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, on September 28 and 29.

Anthony Coulls, senior curator of railway vehicles, at the museum, said: “Bringing the collection to the widest possible audience is what it’s all about. During Mallard’s big anniversary year we wanted to give people in neighbouring regions the chance to see the world’s fastest steam locomotive first-hand.”