Flying Scotsman – the locomotive Centenary Edition 1923-2023
Geoffrey Hughes, Philip Benham and Chris Nettleton
200 pages, 300mm x 210mm Softback £15, hardback at £25
Flying Scotsman was well on the way to the accolade of being known as the world’s most famous engine within only a few years of its construction in 1923. Digital broadcaster
Talking Pictures TV recently reinforced this when they screened a long-lost cinema feature film released in 1929, shot on the Hertford
Loop with the full co-operation of the LNER entitled ‘The Flying Scotsman’, where the central character was as much the engine as the actors playing out a drama around it. The film naturally gets a mention in this expanded 'Centenary' revision and update to the 2016 edition of historian Geoffrey Hughes original 2005 book but by now the film is nothing more than a curious footnote to a story that spans not only multiple generations but also the globe.
Released to celebrate the locomotive’s
100th birthday the chapters first take the reader through the service years 1923-63, Gresley’s original inspiration for the class and its appearance at the 1924 British Empire
Exhibition, he impressive high speed runs, performance and association with the train of the same name, he 1929 film, the rebuild in the 1940s through to service with British Railways and the final improvements carried in the later years of service. The engine was not saved for the National Collection as one might have expected, but took on a whole new life nurtured by charismatic new owner Alan Pegler. A further six chapters cover the Alan Pegler years and what became the calamitous American tour, the rescue by Bill McAlpine and return to Britain in 1973 followed by main line running and a visit to Australia, the return to Britain and the trials and tribulations that eventually led to the locomotive finally moving to the protection of the National Railway Museum in 2004. The drama however rumbled on, but the engine eventually emerged from a troubled restoration and has travelled extensively around Britain ever since entertaining and thrilling generations old and new.
Although we are familiar with the pervasive nature of media in 2023, a century ago it was less so, but nonetheless the LNER’s publicity department managed to set in motion a narrative that still endures today as anyone who has ventured out to witness the engine visit a heritage railway or pass through their local station will testify as they jostle for position amongst the general public who would otherwise take little interest in ‘trains’. This is however Flying Scotsman and it cuts through. This is a fabulous publication with excellent reproduction and featuring an extraordinary collection of colour and black and white images spanning a century of history.