Britain’s most famous steam locomotive the Flying Scotsman is expected to make its long awaited return to London very soon after a decade long restoration programme costing over £4M.

 

The engine will soon make an inaugural journey from King’s Cross station and travel up the East Coast Mainline to York after a restoration programme successfully completed at the end of last year. Test runs took place earlier this year on the East Lancashire Railway and along the West Coast Mainline.

 

In 1928 the Flying Scotsman travelled non stop from London to Edinburgh and in 1934 it became the first steam locomotive to reach 100MPH on a special test run.

 

Work to overhaul the Flying Scotsman took place at the National Railway Museum, which bought the locomotive in 2004 for £2.3M. An appeal to keep the engine in Britain received a National Heritage Memorial Fund grant of £1.8M and the restoration effort was boosted with a £275,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The aim of the purchase was to operate the Scotsman as a working museum exhibit.

 

(Photo: Andrew and licensed for reuse under this Creative Common Licence)