LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman
No. 4472 Flying Scotsman is an LNER Class A3 "Pacific" type steam locomotive built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley. It was employed on long-distance express passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line by LNER and its successors, British Railways' Eastern and North Eastern Regions, notably on The Flying Scotsman service, between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, after which it was named. 4472 became a flagship locomotive for the LNER, representing the company twice at the British Empire Exhibition and in 1928, hauled the inaugural non-stop Flying Scotsman service. On 30 November 1934, it set a world record for steam traction, becoming the first locomotive to reach the officially authenticated speed of.
Retired from British Railways in 1963 after covering, the locomotive earned considerable fame in preservation under the ownership of, successively, Alan Pegler, William McAlpine, Tony Marchington, and, since 2004, the National Railway Museum. While on tour in Australia on 8 August 1989, it set another world record for the longest non-stop run of a steam locomotive of. As a result of these achievements, Flying Scotsman has been described as the world's most famous steam locomotive.
History
LNER
In July 1922, the Great Northern Railway filed Engine Order No. 297 which gave the green-light for ten Class A1 4-6-2 "Pacific" locomotives to be built at Doncaster Works. Designed by Nigel Gresley, the A1s were built to haul mainline and later express passenger trains and following the GNR's absorption into the London and North Eastern Railway after the amalgamation of 1923, became a standard design. Flying Scotsman cost £7,944 to build, and was the first engine delivered to the newly-formed LNER. It entered service on 24 February 1923, carrying the GNR number of 1472 as the LNER had not yet decided on a system-wide numbering scheme. In February 1924 the locomotive received its name after the LNER's Flying Scotsman express service between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, and was assigned a new number, 4472.Flying Scotsman became a flagship locomotive for the LNER, representing the company at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park in 1924 and 1925, and was frequently used in promotional materials. In 1928, the LNER decided to make The Flying Scotsman a non-stop service for the first time and 4472 was one of five A1s selected for the service. It hauled the inaugural train on 1 May, completing the journey of in 8 hours and 3 minutes. The non-stop runs were achieved with an upgraded tender which held an extra long ton of coal and fitted with a corridor connection, so a change of driver and fireman could take place while the train was moving. Water was replenished from the water trough system several times en route. Flying Scotsman ran with its corridor tender until October 1936, after which it reverted to the original type. From 1938 until its withdrawal in 1963, it was paired with a streamlined non-corridor tender.
On 30 November 1934, Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive to reach the officially authenticated speed of, while hauling a light test train between Leeds and London, and the publicity-conscious LNER made much of the fact. Although the Great Western Railway's 3440 City of Truro was reported to have reached the same speed in 1904, the record was unofficial.
Following the success of Gresley's streamlined Class A4s introduced in 1935, Flying Scotsman was relegated to lesser duties but still worked on the main line and hauling passenger services. In 1943, as with all railway stock during World War II, the locomotive was painted black. In 1946, it was renumbered twice by Gresley's successor Edward Thompson, who devised a comprehensive renumbering scheme for the LNER. 4472 was initially assigned number 502, but an amendment to the system several months later led to its renumbering of 103.
In 1928, Gresley began to modify the A1s into an improved version, the Class A3, on a gradual basis. In 1945, the remaining unmodified A1s, which included Flying Scotsman, were reclassified as A10. 103 emerged as an A3 on 4 January 1947 with its original Apple Green livery. Its old 180 psi boiler was replaced with a 225 psi version with the long "banjo" dome of the type it carries today, and it was fitted with more efficient valves and cylinders.
British Railways
Following the nationalisation of Britain's railways on 1 January 1948, Flying Scotsman was renumbered E103 for several months, before almost all of the LNER locomotive numbers were increased by 60000, and became 60103 that December. Between 1949 and 1952 it wore a BR Express Blue livery, after which it was painted in BR Brunswick Green. On 4 June 1950, now under British Railways ownership, Flying Scotsman was allocated to its new base at Leicester Central on the Great Central Railway, running passenger services to and from London Marylebone, London St Pancras, Leicester, Sheffield, and Manchester.60103 returned to the East Coast Main Line in 1953, initially based in Grantham, before returning to London King's Cross in the following year. In December 1958, the locomotive was fitted with a double Kylchap chimney to improve performance and economy, but it caused soft exhaust and smoke drift that tended to obscure the driver's forward vision. The remedy was found in the German-type smoke deflectors fitted at the end of 1961.
Amid rumours that British Railways would sell Flying Scotsman for scrap, the Gresley A3 Preservation Society failed to raise the £3,000 to buy it. Businessman and railway enthusiast Alan Pegler stepped in, having seen the locomotive as a boy at the British Empire Exhibition and received £70,000 in 1961 for his shareholding in the Northern Rubber Company when it was sold to Pegler's Valves, a company started by his grandfather. Pegler bought the locomotive for £3,500 with the political support of Prime Minister Harold Wilson. On 14 January 1963 Jack Peckston of Copley Hill drove Flying Scotsman for its final service with British Railways, hauling the 13:15 from London King's Cross to Leeds with the locomotive coming off at Doncaster. The event attracted considerable media interest. Flying Scotsman had covered over 2.08 million miles in three weeks short of 40 years in operation.
Preservation
Alan Pegler (1963–1972)
Pegler immediately restored Flying Scotsman at Doncaster Works as closely as possible to its LNER condition: it was renumbered 4472 and repainted in LNER Apple Green; the smoke deflectors were removed; the double chimney replaced by a single; and its standard tender was replaced with a corridor type. Pegler's contract with British Railways allowed him to run Flying Scotsman on the network until 31 December 1971; for a time, it was the only steam locomotive running on the British mainline. Its first public run was on 10 April 1963 with a round trip from London Paddington to Ruabon, Wales, where over 8,000 people came out to see the locomotive at Birmingham. In the following year, Pegler had the engine stand on the Forth Bridge for several days while it was sketched for a portrait by Terence Cuneo. On 13 November 1965, Flying Scotsman claimed the fastest steam hauled run between Paddington and Cardiff at 2 hours and 17 minutes, and set the fastest run for the return leg. By the end of 1965, Flying Scotsman had recouped the £3,000 it cost Pegler to buy it.As watering facilities for steam locomotives were disappearing, in September 1966 Pegler spent £1,000 on a second corridor tender which, for an additional £6,000, was adapted as an auxiliary water tank and coupled behind the first tender. With a total water capacity of around 11,000 gallons, this gave Flying Scotsman an operational range of over 200 miles. The boiler and cylinder parts from Flying Scotsman scrapped sister engine, 60041 Salmon Trout were also purchased. On 1 May 1968, the locomotive completed a non-stop London to Edinburgh run, marking the 40th anniversary of the inaugural non-stop Flying Scotsman service and the year steam traction officially ended on British Railways. A non-stop return journey was made three days later.
Following an overhaul on the locomotive in the winter of 1968–69, Wilson's government agreed to support Pegler running Flying Scotsman in the United States and Canada, hauling a 9-coach exhibition train to promote British exports. To comply with local railway regulations, it was fitted with a cowcatcher, bell, buckeye couplers, American-style whistle, air brakes, and high-intensity headlamp. The first leg began in October 1969 with a run from Boston, Massachusetts to Atlanta, Georgia via New York City and Washington, D.C., and on to Slaton, Texas, where it paused for the winter. Despite a successful start, the tour ran into problems as strict anti-steam laws in some states deemed the engine a fire hazard, and either denied permission to run or required the train to be towed by a diesel or electric locomotive. Restrictions on foreign trains meant Pegler was not allowed to carry paying passengers, and had to pay local railways to run on their lines. The tour resumed in 1970 with a run from Texas to Green Bay, Wisconsin and across the Canadian border into Montreal; this was followed by a run from Toronto to San Francisco via the Rocky Mountains and Oregon in 1971, a total of.
In 1972, Flying Scotsman earned money running passenger trips on the San Francisco Belt Railroad and was put on show at Fisherman's Wharf. Despite a hopeful start, complaints from businesses along the route ended the trips, and the train had to relocate to a less accessible yard, causing a 90% reduction of income. Pegler, now £132,000 in debt with considerable unpaid bills, declared himself bankrupt and in August, arranged for the engine to be kept in storage at the US Army's Sharpe Depot in Lathrop, California to keep it from unpaid creditors, who by now were demanding payments and threatening legal action. Pegler worked his passage home on a P&O cruise ship, which led to a seven-year career as a cruise entertainer giving lectures about trains and travel and enabled him to discharge himself from bankruptcy.