“I’ve been timing trains since I was 13,” said Mr Walker, who is 75 and from Cirencester. “The most memorable I did was probably the old Elizabethan from London to Edinburgh. Back then it took six- and-a-half hours. I’d say this is right up there with that.”

Sitting opposite him on the 12.37pm from Glasgow to Euston yesterday was John Heaton, 56, almost certainly the only man on board with more stopwatches — three — than Mr Walker.

“We’re doing pretty well,” he said as the train, serial number 390047, rattled through a valley at the southern edge of the Lake District.

About 400 train spotters, most of them male, middle-aged and clutching maps and souvenir programmes, crammed into one of Virgin’s new tilting trains yesterday as the company tried to set a new record for a non-stop passenger service from Glasgow to London.

At least two brought deck chairs to sit on as they waited at Glasgow Central Station. Several declined the offer of complimentary tea on board, preferring instead the home-made brews in their Thermos flasks.

“It’s a good job we’re three minutes ahead of schedule or we’d be in trouble,” said one, dressed in a sleeveless cream anorak, as the train slowed to 30mph near Carlisle.

“Glasgow to Preston in one hour 58, now that’s impressive,” declared another as a distinguished-looking gentleman walked past handing out invitations to a university lecture on water treatment for modern steam locomotives.

After a troubled first two years for the Pendolinos (Italian for “She that leans”), during which the state of the art trains have suffered from pungent lavatories, faulty air-conditioning and skidding brakes, Sir Richard Branson’s train “revolution” finally began a new era for rail travellers by completing the 401-mile (645km) route in less than four hours.

It is not often that Virgin trains can be accused of running on time or even arriving early. But at 4.32pm, precisely 3 hours, 55 minutes and 27 seconds after leaving Glasgow and to loud cheers from passengers, the service pulled into platform 18 at London Euston, four minutes ahead of schedule. Among those who paid the £60 standard class fare was Thomas Hadlok, 55, a German businessman who travels about 70,000 miles by train each year.

He spent the journey studying a list of 200 “time points” on a clipboard in front of him — including stations, signal boxes and junctions — and noting the precise time at which the landmarks were passed.

John Cruickshank, 74, a retired university lecturer from Aberdeen, said: “I travelled on the APT (Advanced Passenger Train) in 1981 on the first day that it got to Euston. It didn’t set a record that day but it did two days later.”

Ever since November 1936, when the 6201 Princess Elizabeth set a record of 5 hours 44 minutes between Glasgow Central and London Euston, railway executives have been striving to achieve a time of less than four hours.

Until yesterday the record was 4 hours and 14 minutes by an APT in December 1981. The fastest scheduled service between London and Glasgow is 4 hours 24 minutes.

Yesterday’s journey, for which the £36,700 ticket proceeds were donated to charity, included an onboard raffle that gave passengers the chance to win, among other rail-themed prizes, a

VIP day out with Gatwick Express, three railway DVDs and a three-year subscription to The Railway Magazine (post-dated for existing sub- scribers).

Nick Pigott, the magazine’s editor, said that he had been on “the edge of his seat” for the entire four hours.

“I can think of no journey that has filled me with quite so much excitement, anticipation and raw nervous tension as this one,” he said.

Charles Belcher, managing director of Virgin Trains West Coast, said that passengers on board had witnessed “history in the making”.

Probably the most nervous man on the train was Russell Southworth, 40, the driver, whose eyes did not leave the track for a single second.

“I feel very privileged. I doubt I’ll do this again,” he said after arriving in London.

John Malings, 64, the train manager, who retires next spring, said that he expected the journey to be the highlight of his 50-year career on the railways.

“My wife wanted to come but I didn’t invite her,” he said. “I just didn’t think it was the right thing to do.”

Eileen Evans, 54, from Wrexham, who travelled with her husband and was one of the few women on board, said: “It’s a man’s thing, but it’s very pleasant, very civilised. I’m just thrilled to be part of such an historic event.”

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