Which GWR locomotive is claimed by some to have reached 100 mph in 1904?

The GWR locomotive claimed by some to have reached 100 mph in 1904 was City of Truro.

The locomotive was timed during an Ocean Mails special running from Plymouth to London Paddington on 9 May 1904. Railway writer Charles Rous-Marten recorded 8.8 seconds over a quarter-mile, which would equate to about 102.3 mph if the timing was exact. Because his stopwatch registered whole seconds, the next possible reading was nine seconds—equivalent to exactly 100 mph.

The claim remains disputed. Contemporary reports gave estimates of 99 to 100 mph, while later researchers have argued that the locomotive probably peaked just below 99 mph. The evidence is therefore historically important but not an uncontested precision measurement.

City of Truro became central to Great Western Railway publicity from 1922 onward. It was an eighth-batch GWR City-class locomotive, originally numbered 3440 and later renumbered 3717. Silver Link, Evening Star and Flying Scotsman are associated with other British railway stories, not this 1904 claim.