The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Touring train to stop in Tayside and Fife after drawing Perth crowds
Crowds gathered in Perthshire to see the Great Britain XVI train on its tour of the country.
The steam train travelled through Stirlingshire and Perthshire yesterday on day four of its nine-day expedition.
The Glasgow Central to Inverness service arrived at Perth – via Stirling, Bridge of Allan, Auchterarder and Blackford – at 11.40am.
The train was hauled by two Black-5 steam locomotives, 44871 and 45407 “The Lancashire Fusilier”, with a class 47 locomotive at the rear.
After a lengthy water stop it set off at 1.20pm, passing through Stanley, Dunkeld, Pitlochry and Blair Atholl before reaching its Highland destination at 4.55pm.
As the name suggests, this is the 16th year of the steam-hauled rail tour of Britain. Its journey began on Saturday when it travelled from London Victoria to Cheltenham. It will terminate at London Paddington on Sunday.
Fares for the sought-after trip started at £3,295.
Locals will have another chance to see the train when it travels from Inverness to Edinburgh via Aberdeen on Thursday.
It is timetabled to pass through Montrose (2pm), Arbroath (2.16pm), Carnoustie (2.27pm) and Broughty Ferry (2.34pm) before arriving at Dundee at 2.43pm.
The train is scheduled to leave at 3.22pm and travel via Longforgan (3.29pm) and Errol (3.38pm) before arriving at Perth at 3.52pm.
Ten minutes later at 4.02pm it will depart for Edinburgh Waverley via Newburgh (4.19pm), Ladybank (4.29pm), Thornton North (4.49pm), Kirkcaldy (5.19pm), Burntisland (5.27pm) and Inverkeithing (5.39pm).