The Flying Scotsman

Journeyed down to my sister-in-law's in Cumbernauld yesterday in a bit of a blizzard but arrived safely. This morning, my nephew showed me his amazing model railway and I was able to take this photo of The Flying Scotsman.

The "Flying Scotsman", an A1 class locomotive number 4472, was used to haul the inaugural train from London on 1 May 1928, and it successfully ran the 392 miles between Edinburgh and London without stopping, a record at the time for a scheduled service (although the London Midland and Scottish Railway had four days earlier staged a one-off publicity coup by running the "Royal Scot's" Edinburgh section non-stop from Euston - 399.7 miles).

The 1928 non-stop Flying Scotsman had improved catering and other on-board services - even a barber's shop. With the end of the limited speed agreement in 1932, journey time came down to 7 hours 30 minutes, and by 1938 to 7 hours 20 minutes. The Flying Scotsman ceased to be a non-stop train, calling at Newcastle upon Tyne, York and Peterborough in the British Rail era.

After lunch, with the threat of snow, we returned to Dundee. Fortunately the weather was not as bad as the previous day.