A streamlined steam locomotive that once took wealthy Bradford woolmen from Bradford to London more than 70 years ago was being shown off to the public today.

The Dwight D Eisenhower, the class of A4 loco as the record-breaking Mallard, which reached the speed of 126mph in 1938, has been having the finishing touches to its makeover in the workshop of York’s National Railway Museum in preparation for next year’s 75th anniversary celebrations of Mallard’s world speed record.

The Doncaster-built sister of the world’s fastest steam locomotive came to the home of the railways after a 2,527 mile Atlantic odyssey and a trans-continental trek across North America from a museum in Winsconcin.

Bradford railway historian Mark Neale wrote an article in November for the T&A about this event in which he said: “The National Railway Museum is planning to unite all six surviving A4s next July, and railway enthusiasts throughout the country are licking their lips at the sight of all surviving ‘streaks’ posing together for the cameras.”

Bob Gwynne, Associate Curator of Railway Vehicles at the National Railway Museum said: “We are hoping that visitors will visit our workshop balcony to watch Heritage Painting transform Dwight D Eisenhower back to its streamlined Brunswick green best and return over the Christmas holidays to see the finished job.”

It was on July 3, 1938, that Mallard, which had a blue livery, was recorded as reaching the 126mph on the East Coast Main Line, breaking the existing German record of 124 mph set in 1936.

With Hitler’s Third Reich then in the ascendancy it was a matter of national pride that a British locomotive captured the world speed crown. No 4468 Mallard was the first of the class to be fitted with a double chimney.