The steam locomotive Flying Scotsman has arrived in Dorset for a working visit to the Swanage Railway.
Close to celebrating its centenary, the 97-tonne A3 class locomotive – completed in 1923 by the London and North Eastern Railway arrived at Swanage station on the morning of Tuesday 18th October after a six-hour rail journey from London.
Owned by the National Railway Museum in York, No. 60103 ‘Flying Scotsman’ will be on the Swanage Railway until Monday 7th November 2022.
During a test run in 1934, the Nigel Gresley-designed locomotive was the first steam locomotive in the United Kingdom to haul a train at 100 miles an hour.
Flying Scotsman will be hauling passenger trains between Swanage, Corfe Castle and Norden from Saturday 22 October to Wednesday 26 October inclusive.
Coupled behind No. 60103 will be an historic late 1940s Devon Belle Pullman observation carriage – known as Car 14 – that dedicated Swanage Railway volunteers rescued from San Francisco in the U.S.A. during 2007 where it was a static bar.
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.
“We are very honoured to have ‘Flying Scotsman’ visiting the Swanage Railway and it will be great to see No. 60103 hauling the unique Car 14 Devon Belle Pullman observation carriage because they operated as a pair while on a tour of Canada and the United States to promote British exports between 1969 and 1972,” added Bob who is also a Swanage Railway Trust trustee and a volunteer station porter on the popular heritage line.
To find out more about Flying Scotsman see swanagerailway.co.uk.