THE pulling power of steam is undiminished – as the record-breaking loco Mallard has proved once more.

The National Railway Museum is now celebrating achieving well over one million visitors at its sites in York and Shildon over the past year.

The figures are largely thanks to the recent “Great Gatherings” of Mallard and its five surviving sister engines, which attracted huge crowds to both the NRM and Locomotion.

The final tally for overall visitors including groups and corporate event attendees was 296,000 at the Shildon site and 950,000 at York, smashing the totals of 203,000 and 742,000 the previous year.

The Mallard gatherings – held to mark the 75th anniversary of the loco’s record-breaking speed run, drew 365,000 of those but the wave of publicity the events created also played a part in an overall increase in visitors. At York there was an uplift of more than 30 per cent.

The figures smash the initial forecast of 754,000 and also the revised estimate of 916,000 once the impact of the Mallard 75 season was realised.

NRM director Paul Kirkman said: “It’s been an amazing year for the National Railway Museum, and our increase in visitors at both our Shildon and York sites is mainly due to the staggering success of the Mallard 75 series of events.

“Our Great Gatherings of all six steam survivors set new visitor records in July and February and now the season is over we hope that people will still flock to see the record breaker at its York home and its transatlantic sisters at Shildon this Easter before they make their return voyage in May.”