One of the highlights of the Swanage Railway enthusiasts’ calendar is a visit from one of the world’s most famous locomotives, the Flying Scotsman.
The historic steam engine has graced the tracks of the Isle of Purbeck’s heritage railway line on a number of occasions, drawing crowds of people wanting to travel behind it, or or simply witness it on static display at Swanage Station.
The Flying Scotsman is famously the first steam locomotive in the UK to haul a train at 100 miles an hour – and the first to circumnavigate the globe.
Visit Swanage Railway’s website to see when The Flying Scotsman will return.
Flying Scotsman Fact File
- 97-tonne A3 class locomotive
- Build year: 1923
- Build cost: £7,944
- Length: 70ft
The History of the Flying Scotsman
- Design & build: Flying Scotsman was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley as part of the A1 class and construction was completed in 1923 by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER)
- Naming: No. 60103 ‘Flying Scotsman’ is named after the London to Edinburgh express train service that it helped to operate – this journey then took eight hours
- The locomotive was exhibited in 1924 at the British Empire Exhibition in London
- Record-breaking: In 1934, the Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive in the United Kingdom to haul a train at 100mph during a test run in 1934
- The Flying Scotsman, like all railway stock, was repainted in wartime black during WWII, and returned to its original Apple Green when the war was over and rebranded as an A3 Pacific. It was painted blue for a short time, but returned once again to green
- Withdrawn from service in 1963 (retired after pulling trains for 40 years) and destined for the scrapyard, entrepreneur Alan Peglar bought the locomotive for £3,000
- In 2004 the National Railway Museum acquired the Flying Scotsman and then begun a ten-year, £4.2m restoration project on it
Find out even more about this iconic piece of British railway history by visiting the National Railway Museum’s website: www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/flying-scotsman