Flying Scotsman arrives in Swanage for three-week holiday on the coast
AFTER a six-hour journey from London following the high-profile King’s Cross launch of its centenary year programme, A3 Pacific No. 60103 Flying Scotsman arrived on the Swanage Railway on the morning of Tuesday, October 18 at the start of a three-week visit to the Purbeck line.
While running through Christchurch on its way to Bournemouth en route, No. 60103 passed Stourfield Junior School. Its pupils were all out on the field, and waving and cheering enthusiastically as the A3 and its support coach passed by.
The A3, which previously visited the heritage line in 2019, will stay until November 7, and there was every indication that it will do much as an added visitor magnet to extend the Dorset resort’s summer season.
Flying Scotsman was booked to haul passenger trains between Swanage and Norden from October 22-26.
Footplate visits
Afterwards, it was scheduled to go on static display at Swanage station for pre-booked public visits with ticket-only access to the footplate daily between October 27 and November 6 inclusive.
Swanage Railway Company chairman Bob Patterson said: “It’s wonderful to see Flying Scotsman at Swanage because the iconic locomotive has a wonderful charisma – it’s a real icon, an impressive piece of 1920s railway engineering, and the most famous steam locomotive in the world.”
Penny Pegler, the daughter of the late Alan Pegler, who bought the A3 for £3000 from BR in 1963 to save it from being scrapped, was due to fly from her home in Portugal to ride behind it on the heritage line on October 22, in the 1940s ‘Devon Belle’ observation carriage Car No. 14.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a teenage Penny travelled when the wooden carriage ran behind Flying Scotsman on her father’s publicity tour of North America promoting British exports. The tour went bust and Car 14 later became a static bar in San Francisco until it was repatriated in 2007 by Swanage volunteers.
“Flying Scotsman was a very important part of my life as a child,” said Penny. “I was nine years old when my father came up to my room on a snowy night in January 1963 to say goodnight and told me, with a twinkle in his eye, that he had just bought a beautiful steam locomotive to save her from being cut up in a scrapyard.
‘Nothing like it’
“Over the next few years, my father and I went on many wonderful trips all over the UK with Scotty, as we called Flying Scotsman. For me, she was lovely and a special part of my family life. On many occasions, I followed my father through Flying Scotsman’s corridor tender and sat in the fireman’s seat for a short while. There is nothing quite like it.
“I spent so many happy and exciting days travelling with the team across the United States in this lovely observation carriage, watching the beautiful scenery go by and waving at the crowds of onlookers who came out in their thousands to see Flying Scotsman run by.
“My father had a passion for Flying Scotsman, ever since he saw her as a four-year-old in London, and wanted to keep her running and not to be just a static exhibit. He wanted to keep her alive for future generations to enjoy and today she is everybody’s locomotive, with everyone having their own special memory of Flying Scotsman. My father would be so happy to see that and he must be looking down and smiling.”
Scotsman’s visit kicks off the railway’s winter programme. After it has departed for the next stop on its centenary calendar, November 9-13 will see pre-booked taster driver experience trains on the Swanage Railway, but no public service.
Pre-booked Christmas luncheon trains will run on November 26/27 and December 3/4, 10/11, 17/18 and 21/22.The Steam and Lights evening trains, also pre-booked, will operate on December 3/4, 9/10, 16/17 and 21-23.
A DMU service will run from December 27 to January 2, and the January 7/8 Winter Warm-Up weekend event will feature a two-train service, one steam and one diesel. For more details, visit swanagerailway. co.uk
➜ The Swanage Railway welcomes new volunteers who are invited to contact the Swanage Railway recruitment and retention office on 01929 408466 or email iwanttovolunteer@ swanagerailway.co.uk