Flying Scotsman visits Edinburgh to mark its 100th birthday
- last year
‘World’s most famous locomotive’ Flying Scotsman visits Edinburgh to mark its 100th birthday
It is the locomotive that lived in the shadow of the celebrated train after which it was named – only to become the most famous steam engine in the world following retirement from mainline service 60 years years ago.
Flying Scotsman will celebrate the centenary of leaving the Doncaster works where it was built on Friday with a special visit to Edinburgh at the northern end of the east coast main line it plied in the heyday of luxury train travel during the inter-war years.
The appearance at Waverley Station will be followed by the latest of a series of charters north of the Border since the locomotive completed a mammoth £4.2 million restoration six years ago.
The first of these in 2016 was nearly cancelled at the last minute when it was discovered Network Rail staff had failed to make safety checks to ensure the locomotive would fit past bridges and platforms, but the work was completed with hours to spare.
A “Centenary Weekender” will see Flying Scotsman haul a four-day excursion from June 30 between London and Aberdeen, costing up to £2,225 per passenger.
The locomotive is also due to visit the Strathspey Railway in Aviemore, with details due to be announced on Friday, while two further Scottish excursions are being finalised.
The Waverley event will include the first reading of The Making of Flying Scotsman, a new poem by UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage written to commemorate the centenary.
Dancers from the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society were also due to perform The Flying Scotsman, devised by Hugh Thurston in 1966, which tells the story of the train’s journey.
Kevin MacDonald from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers beside Flying Scotsman at Edinburgh Waverley Station on Friday. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
Kevin MacDonald from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers beside Flying Scotsman at Edinburgh Waverley Station on Friday. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
The floral clock in Princes Street Gardens will also have a Flying Scotsman theme later this year.
Flying Scotsman was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, renowned as one of Britain’s greatest railway engineers, who was born in 1876 in Edinburgh.
The Pacific class A1 locomotive was plucked from obscurity by the London and North Eastern Railway to front an upgraded Edinburgh-London rail service, which had operated since 1862, originally known as the Special Scotch Express before becoming the Flying Scotsman.
The new non-stop service, launched in 1928 in an attempt to trump the company’s west coast rivals, took rail travel to new heights of luxury.
Railway author Simon Bradley has described it as “truly a train to remember”, with its mahogany-panelled first class dining car, hairdressing salon and barber shop, and Britain's first cinema carriage.
However, confusingly, many locomotives as well as Flying Scotsman hauled the Flying Scotsman train, which left both Waverley and London King’s Cross at 10am. F
It is the locomotive that lived in the shadow of the celebrated train after which it was named – only to become the most famous steam engine in the world following retirement from mainline service 60 years years ago.
Flying Scotsman will celebrate the centenary of leaving the Doncaster works where it was built on Friday with a special visit to Edinburgh at the northern end of the east coast main line it plied in the heyday of luxury train travel during the inter-war years.
The appearance at Waverley Station will be followed by the latest of a series of charters north of the Border since the locomotive completed a mammoth £4.2 million restoration six years ago.
The first of these in 2016 was nearly cancelled at the last minute when it was discovered Network Rail staff had failed to make safety checks to ensure the locomotive would fit past bridges and platforms, but the work was completed with hours to spare.
A “Centenary Weekender” will see Flying Scotsman haul a four-day excursion from June 30 between London and Aberdeen, costing up to £2,225 per passenger.
The locomotive is also due to visit the Strathspey Railway in Aviemore, with details due to be announced on Friday, while two further Scottish excursions are being finalised.
The Waverley event will include the first reading of The Making of Flying Scotsman, a new poem by UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage written to commemorate the centenary.
Dancers from the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society were also due to perform The Flying Scotsman, devised by Hugh Thurston in 1966, which tells the story of the train’s journey.
Kevin MacDonald from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers beside Flying Scotsman at Edinburgh Waverley Station on Friday. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
Kevin MacDonald from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers beside Flying Scotsman at Edinburgh Waverley Station on Friday. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
The floral clock in Princes Street Gardens will also have a Flying Scotsman theme later this year.
Flying Scotsman was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, renowned as one of Britain’s greatest railway engineers, who was born in 1876 in Edinburgh.
The Pacific class A1 locomotive was plucked from obscurity by the London and North Eastern Railway to front an upgraded Edinburgh-London rail service, which had operated since 1862, originally known as the Special Scotch Express before becoming the Flying Scotsman.
The new non-stop service, launched in 1928 in an attempt to trump the company’s west coast rivals, took rail travel to new heights of luxury.
Railway author Simon Bradley has described it as “truly a train to remember”, with its mahogany-panelled first class dining car, hairdressing salon and barber shop, and Britain's first cinema carriage.
However, confusingly, many locomotives as well as Flying Scotsman hauled the Flying Scotsman train, which left both Waverley and London King’s Cross at 10am. F