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ENGINE ROARS

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WHISTLE BLOWS

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The train now approaching platform 11

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is the Flying Scotsman from London King's Cross.

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There are very few things that will get the station master at Waverley

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out of his bowler hat, but the Flying Scotsman is one of them.

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The famous express that leaves London when he has barely finished breakfast

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and gets to Edinburgh not long after his lunchtime.

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There are other trains which get here just as fast but when I'm on the one

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called Flying Scotsman, I feel I actually get here quicker,

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which is one of the reasons hard-headed railways managers

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give their trains romantic names.

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But to many people,

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the name Flying Scotsman means something quite different.

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A famous locomotive which was born in 1923

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and has been to many other places beside Edinburgh.

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Up and down North America, for a start.

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Is the Flying Scotsman a train or is it an engine

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or is it a white elephant?

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It's one of the most famous names in the world

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but where did the name come from?

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To find all this out,

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we have to go back even before railways were invented.

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Up to about 1850, if you'd wanted to get to Scotland in a hurry

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you'd have gone by flying coach.

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It flew up the Great North Road at an average speed of 10 miles an hour,

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stopping every 10 miles or so just to change horses.

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Apart from that, it went non-stop, hence flying,

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through the day and the night.

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It wasn't much fun at the best of times

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and was worst if you had an outside seat and were tired.

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That's where we get the expression "dropping off to sleep."

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Then came the railway, and the average speed

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of the journey to Edinburgh magically quadrupled.

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The through-route was open by 1850.

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In 1852, King's Cross station in London was completed

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and in 1862, the first named Express appeared - the Scotch Express,

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which was what they first called the Flying Scotsman.

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It left King's Cross station every morning at 10am on the dot

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and started flying north.

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The speed may have been a lot better

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but the facilities were the same as on the stage coach.

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No toilets, no food, no moving from your seat,

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so they must have been longing to get to that 20 minute stop

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at York for lunch and everything else.

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As the passengers piled into the restaurant at 2:35,

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the soup was put in front of them, and from then

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on the restaurant resounded with the crash of crockery,

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courses being rushed to and fro.

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Outside, passengers could hear the shunting and crashing

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of the new engine being put on.

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The sound they were really listening for was the station bell.

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Once you heard that, you left your apple pie where it was

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and rushed back to the train.

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It was the Victorian equivalent

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of making a hasty plane change at Heathrow.

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In fact, after York they were leaving Great Northern territory

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and flying up the North Eastern line.

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The new engine, full of coal and water again,

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pulled them over the high-level bridge into Newcastle

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where they had another chance to resort to the lavatories at 4:55,

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then with hardly a pause, on, on up to Berwick,

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and another change of engines, this time to a North British machine.

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They finally arrived at Edinburgh at 8:35,

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ten and a half hours after leaving London.

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It may seem slow to us, but to them it was a miracle.

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A miracle only to the well-heeled, of course, for it wasn't until 1887

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that third-class passengers were catered for at all.

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After that, things rapidly improved for everyone.

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Restaurant cars were introduced,

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which meant of course that corridors had to be introduced as well.

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The first lavatories appeared on trains

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and as early as 1875,

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the North British Railway had pioneered sleeper compartments.

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All this meant the trains were getting heavier,

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and that meant that engines had to get more and more powerful.

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Then suddenly, the Scotch Express hit the headlines in 1888.

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The record time to Scotland was lowered suddenly

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from nine hours to seven and a half hours.

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The race became part of British railway history,

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shortly to be followed by another now-familiar sight

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in British stations, the railway enthusiast.

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I've been on here at three o'clock in the morning.

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Was it here that they always changed engines?

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Oh, yes, always. They changed engines here, Grantham, Newcastle.

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That's good, although it was one company taking off its engine,

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and another company putting it on.

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I met Arthur Dewar in York Station in 1985.

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He had first been here to watch trains as a boy in 1916.

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It must have been quite a sight, York station in those days?

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Oh, yes, it was marvellous.

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Beautiful, gleaming green engines, brass.

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Not dirty and smoke stained?

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No, brass columns and brass round the wheel hall, shining.

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I'm afraid we have to go to the museum to see them nowadays.

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Yes. That's how they were. All like that.

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So you must have seen the Flying Scotsman come through many a time.

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Well, it wasn't called that then. Not till about 1938.

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It was known to the railway people as the Special Scotch Express.

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In the timetable, it wasn't differentiated from any other train.

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It was already known as...?

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Most people knew it by, yes.

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In 1923, Flying Scotsman the engine was born,

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one of a new class, the A1 Pacifics,

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which could run non-stop from London to Edinburgh,

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and also had rather glamorous film-star looks.

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Just as well as they were about to become film stars,

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as I discovered from railway film collector John Huntley.

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John, this must be about the first film

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of the non-stop Flying Scotsman that exists?

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Yes, it is. It's a bit of a mystery film,

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we don't really know who made it, but it is a most valuable record

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of the old London North Eastern Railway,

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and of course certainly there's no doubt about the film was made

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to celebrate this idea that started on 1st May, 1928,

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when they began the non-stop run,

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even including things like a cocktail bar on the train.

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This train was extraordinary. It had at different times, it had a cinema,

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in-flight movies Flying Scotsman-style in the '30s.

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It had a hairdressing salon on the train at one time.

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For women originally,

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it was so successful that they introduced it for men.

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In the early 1930s, there was a sort of disco

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where they had an all-horn radio which piped in dance music

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and people danced as you went on your way to Scotland,

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so it was quite a train, the Flying Scotsman, in those days.

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It was a pretty magical thing, you know, in 1928,

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when you think how long ago that actually is.

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To run a train all this distance.

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There seems to be more than a whiff of advertising about this.

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The feeling that it's not just a documentary,

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it's saying "Come travel with us."

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That probably was the price of all facilities

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and a free ticket on the train, I expect, in those days.

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How long did the train take in those days?

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How long was it back then?

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It was all slowed up because of the stupid business...

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..Of the agreement. It didn't have to arrive in Edinburgh

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before the Midland train arrived in Glasgow.

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Frank Mays, our other expert,

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was actually a fireman on the Flying Scotsman in its heyday,

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though this was the first time he'd seen any of these films.

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They purposely slowed it down?

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They did, and they kept it outside of Edinburgh for a little while

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until the time approached and it was allowed in.

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A lovely name. Such a grand name.

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I think it's because they're both full of unfinished buildings.

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Those trams, I always associate those

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with the early days of the Edinburgh Festival.

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Very much, Princes Street never was quite the same without the trams.

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Before the 1920s were out,

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the engine itself had become an established film star.

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Not in a documentary or a commercial, but in a fully-fledged thriller.

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This looks a very different sort of film. I detect a story here.

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Yes, this was 1929.

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Most of the textbooks say that Alfred Hitchcock's film Blackmail

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is the first sound film, but I don't think it's right.

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This was the first one. It's directed by Castleton Knight,

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and as you'll see, it's mainly shot as a silent film.

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It uses mainly silent shots.

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That's Pauline Johnson, the heroine of the film,

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and this they did for real.

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They were allowed to shoot using 4472 Flying Scotsman.

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She really did this.

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They're certainly not going less than 40-45 miles an hour

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in relatively high-heeled 1920s shoes,

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battling her way forward to the loco, in pursuit, in fact, of the villain.

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Now, the fireman in the film is Ray Milland, it's his first movie.

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The storyline is that he's a young fireman

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and this is his girlfriend, but in fact, although he doesn't know it,

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the engine driver is her father.

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A near thing last night. Her old man came on, nearly caught me.

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Just managed to dodge him with the skin of my teeth.

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Silent acting.

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So you're the one!

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Then a fight on the footplate. What's so incredible about this film

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is that's the sort of thing you'd normally see at the studio.

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Here she goes. She's got to cross over from the loco to the tender.

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Not much to hold onto.

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She finds the rhythm of the two is totally different.

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Even that's for real.

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The sort of thing you'd always do in a studio today.

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She's in pursuit of the villain played by Alec Hurley.

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What's his interest, the villain?

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He's out to get the engine driver who ratted on him and lost him his job.

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Ray Milland... You see even that's shot for real.

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It's extraordinary the way they set him up.

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The story is a little on the melodramatic side.

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She sees old dad knocked for six by the villain.

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Here's a rather interesting bit

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because the villain makes sure that the loco is running,

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and he goes back using the passageway in the tender. There it is,

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which was how you got from the footplate of the locomotive

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back into the train itself, through this little narrow passageway

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running through the tender,

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with the water tank and the coal and everything.

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There's Alec Hurley doing some grimaces.

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This is the bit that Sir Nigel Gresley hated.

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Puts his hand out, pulls a little plug

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and the loco separates out from the stock

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and they both go on racing away.

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Sir Nigel said very indignantly afterwards,

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"When I saw this wretched film, they suggested

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that London North Eastern Railway had not yet discovered the vacuum brake!"

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Well, the film had a happy ending for everyone, except the villain.

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Ray Milland went on to become a Hollywood star

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and Sir Nigel Gresley never let any filming take place on the NER again.

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In fact, it wasn't until after his death, and well after the war,

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that our third film was made.

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The Elizabethan Express was really the last great flowering of steam.

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These marvellous Gresley A4 locomotives,

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and really I think what they decided

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was as they knew that steam's days were numbered, they thought

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they'd have this run non-stop from King's Cross to Edinburgh

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as it had been done in the old days.  They didn't actually strangely do it

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with the 10am Flying Scotsman. They did it as a summer service only,

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at 9:30, and this ran in front of the Flying Scotsman but the idea

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was to keep alive this tradition of non-stop running on steam.

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It's very much of the '50s, the whole thing. It has a funny old commentary.

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The passengers sitting at buffet tables -

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the Howards, the Berts, the Cynthias, the Mables -

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enjoying the comfort and ease in their seats.

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Careless of crumbs in turn-ups or pleats,

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admire the gleam on the chromium plate,

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Polish on tables, the unfaded state of curtains and fabrics,

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but rarely give thought to the long years of training.

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Now beyond York, the Scots crew prepare to relieve the strain

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on the English pair.

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They had a reserve compartment, and the Edinburgh men,

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they worked from Edinburgh to York the day previous,

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stayed overnight in London in a hostel

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and then they signed on duty in the morning at King's Cross,

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rode passenger in the train in a reserve compartment,

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had a meal on the train before they actually relieved,

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and then went through the corridor tender which we can see now

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onto the footplate and relieved while the train was going at 50-60 mph.

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There you see Tony MacLeod, the Haymarket driver,

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relieving Bob Marroble.

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Bob Marroble's taking his case and walking back and through,

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and there's Mungo Scott.

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Mungo's looking at the fire

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to see the state of the fire before he starts firing up.

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Sir Nigel Gresley designed his A4 with the speed of a greyhound,

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the strength of a boar, but when he put fire in her stomach,

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he taught her to burn with a furious thirst for water,

246
00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:56,360
so when she approaches a water trough,

247
00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:59,000
watch fireman Mungo doing his stuff.

248
00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:06,440
There's the water troughs. He's dropping the scoop in.

249
00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:12,440
There you can see the water overflowing.

250
00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:15,480
I should imagine they'll get somewhere in the region

251
00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:18,480
of about 4,000 gallons if they're lucky.

252
00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:21,360
These guys are the kings of the track, aren't they?

253
00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:24,320
Oh, yes. They're top link men. Probably Tony MacLeod, he's worked

254
00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:29,200
on the railway 40 years before he started doing this type of work.

255
00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:32,280
They're all quite old, the drivers?

256
00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:38,920
On those jobs, yes. Tony MacLeod would be 60, 61.

257
00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:43,280
He'd been on those jobs for five or six years when that film was taken.

258
00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:46,320
Mungo Scott was in his middle-20s.

259
00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:54,160
As they come down from Groundshouse, the peak of the climb,

260
00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:56,640
they're over the worst.

261
00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:58,360
And she's running on time.

262
00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:06,360
There was great rivalry between the different crews

263
00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:09,640
and you'd swear by your driver.

264
00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:17,720
The consumption worked out at about a ton per 60 miles.

265
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:22,280
You actually physically lifted, on a little shovel....

266
00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:24,400
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

267
00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:50,040
Mr Arnott at Waverley Station has a very high sense of occasion.

268
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:52,840
If a train's a non-stopper, his topper is proper,

269
00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:55,120
his humbug's for trains of low station.

270
00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,000
When that film was made,

271
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,120
you could feel they thought nothing would change.

272
00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:04,560
Steam engines would go on forever, Britain would always have an empire

273
00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:07,480
and Blackpool and Newcastle United would always be in the cup final.

274
00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:11,200
But overnight almost, British Rail's modernisation programme

275
00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:15,240
announced the end of steam. Four years later, the first Deltic diesels

276
00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:17,640
were being ordered for the Edinburgh run.

277
00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:21,000
Soon after that, steam engines were being replaced not by steam engines

278
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,720
but other kinds of engines, for the first time in history.

279
00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,600
The steam loco was becoming a threatened species.

280
00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:29,360
British Rail were going to look after the future

281
00:17:29,360 --> 00:17:31,640
but who was going to look after the past?

282
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:35,280
In the nick of time, a new breed of man arrived - the private collector.

283
00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:44,600
40 years old, only done three million miles. What a sniff at £3,000.

284
00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:48,640
That's what a businessman paid for this grand veteran of the iron road.

285
00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:52,280
All dressed up for the part, the proud man from Nottinghamshire,

286
00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:55,120
Alan Pegler, was with the engine he saved from the break-up yard.

287
00:17:55,120 --> 00:17:57,920
The Flying Scotsman has years of work in her still, but progress,

288
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:00,560
in the shape of diesel locomotives, has pushed her aside.

289
00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:03,280
That's a sad thought for everybody who's ever thrilled

290
00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:05,280
at the sight of an express steam engine.

291
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:15,400
WHISTLE BLOWS

292
00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:18,000
Alan Pegler was realising a dream

293
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,040
most people only played with in their head -

294
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:25,480
running a real life-size train set.

295
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:29,320
In 1968, 40 years on, he recreated the first non-stop run to Edinburgh.

296
00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:31,240
There is in fact no real economy

297
00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:34,720
in going from London to Edinburgh non-stop, and British Rail

298
00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:38,200
don't want to do it today, but when you have to take two tenders

299
00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:41,560
to carry all that coal and water, there are disadvantages,

300
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:43,720
but when you run your very own engine,

301
00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,800
you don't think about things like that, you just do it.

302
00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,960
Today, Edinburgh, tomorrow the world, and the next year,

303
00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:58,080
Alan Pegler took the engine to America.

304
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:15,520
The Flying Scotsman was trying to make money

305
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,960
out of hauling a business exhibition train across America.

306
00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:23,000
The man who ended up in charge of the operation was George Hinchcliffe.

307
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:26,560
After the first trip, which from the exhibitors' point of view

308
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,600
was very successful, from Boston to Houston, Texas,

309
00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:36,120
the train was put into store and eventually, the following year, 1970,

310
00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:38,400
we took it out of store in Slaton, Texas,

311
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:40,280
and took it right up to Green Bay.

312
00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:46,800
That was fairly successful and I was in charge of the operation then,

313
00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:49,920
and we were actually making money hand over fist.

314
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:53,400
The great thing in 1970 was that we visited very small places,

315
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:59,840
where we were a very big event in a comparatively small town.

316
00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:04,320
20,000 inhabitants and probably a third of them would turn out.

317
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:06,240
It was marvellous.

318
00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:14,480
But the expense of running an engine so far from home

319
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:16,840
turned into difficulties, and difficulties turned

320
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,160
into enormous debts, until another rescuer was needed desperately.

321
00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:22,160
He turned up in the nick of time

322
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:24,440
in the shape of one of the McAlpine family.

323
00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:28,160
Well, Bill rang me one night and said,

324
00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:31,280
"I've heard terrible things about the Flying Scotsman.

325
00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:34,880
"Could you go over to America and find out what's happened?"

326
00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:39,760
The day I actually saw the lawyer who was responsible for

327
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:41,600
Flying Scotsman while it was in America

328
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:44,000
was the day that the girl typist

329
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:51,280
in San Francisco was about to type the writ to impound the locomotive,

330
00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:56,680
but with a time factor of about four hours between Washington time

331
00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:01,760
and San Francisco time, I had chance to phone Bill McAlpine and say,

332
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:05,320
"Look, if you can pay so many thousand dollars,

333
00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:08,160
"the engine's yours."

334
00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:11,360
HORN BLARES

335
00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:15,720
And so, on what might nearly have been a funeral barge,

336
00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:18,000
Flying Scotsman set off home again.

337
00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:24,800
WIND WHISTLES

338
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:35,440
They say that all the cells in the human body are replaced every

339
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:39,480
seven years, and something of the same sort happens to a steam engine.

340
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:42,920
There isn't much here that dates back to 1923.

341
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:46,360
But the spirit lives on, and as much as anything, that's what they're

342
00:21:46,360 --> 00:21:50,880
restoring today at Steamtown, here at Carnforth in Lancashire.

343
00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,640
The work is done by a mixture of dedicated volunteers

344
00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:57,680
and permanently employed specialists.

345
00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:04,920
Welding new tubes for the super heater is definitely

346
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:07,920
specialist work, but it takes more than expertise

347
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:10,520
to get 100 tons of metal steaming again.

348
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:12,880
It takes quite a lot of devotion, a lot of money,

349
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:14,400
and backaching hard work.

350
00:22:16,360 --> 00:22:20,040
Well, we try to do bits and pieces of what we can.

351
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:22,000
We're not all skilled.

352
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:26,480
I used to be a fireman on this type of engine at Doncaster,

353
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,160
and that's where my interest stems from.

354
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,840
I think once you've been on that job,

355
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,800
there's something bred into you that never leaves you.

356
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:40,200
It's inside you. It's probably always there.

357
00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:47,520
I'm at work here five days a week for pay

358
00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,520
and the other two I'm usually here doing the volunteers' work as well.

359
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:52,520
That's how I originally started.

360
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,960
It's all right going by the textbook but it isn't...

361
00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:59,560
You know, when you get your hands dirty, you know why it works

362
00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:01,400
and how it performs.

363
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:05,320
We do it for the love of it and not only that -

364
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:08,560
we're preserving part of the Railway Heritage of the country.

365
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,840
'I mean, you can go to a five-year-old child

366
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,640
'and they've heard of the Flying Scotsman.'

367
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:18,880
This crown looks in poor condition, Pat.

368
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,920
Looks as though the white metal has moved slightly.

369
00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:26,600
Dirt and grit gets into the white metal.

370
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,640
It gets so much dirt into it it won't absorb oil,

371
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:31,800
and it eventually it'll start to wear.

372
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:35,360
It's just like your car big end, exactly.

373
00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:47,720
White metal, well, it's 65% tin and the rest is lead and antimony.

374
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,440
It's quite expensive.

375
00:23:56,320 --> 00:24:00,040
It takes me a day to re-metal one, a full day,

376
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:04,360
and then probably another day to machine it and fit it on.

377
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,360
I first started in 1942, straight from school at 14.

378
00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:12,720
At one time, if you lived in Carnforth

379
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:16,160
and you were in a railway family, you automatically went onto the railway.

380
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:22,800
And so Flying Scotsman is ready for the road again.

381
00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:26,800
Well, almost ready.

382
00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:30,520
Before it can go out on British Rail track,

383
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:32,080
there have to be last-minute checks

384
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:36,840
and an intimate inspection by British Rail's surgeons and specialists.

385
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:41,320
A match-fitness test of all those hamstrings and cartilages.

386
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:47,840
After that, a proper road test, a 30-mile run up to the Yorkshire Dales

387
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:51,160
and back, and that's how I came to have the magic chance to go down

388
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,600
the same tender corridor on which Alec Hurley, the villain, went,

389
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:58,320
in 1929, through which so many drivers have passed

390
00:24:58,320 --> 00:24:59,720
on the non-stop run.

391
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,000
At the end of the tunnel, I found the British Rail Inspector

392
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:06,960
Reg Lawrence.

393
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:08,480
All right if I come?

394
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:10,960
Yes, come on. Do what do you want, yes.

395
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:12,000
It would be quite safe?

396
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,200
WHISTLE BLOWS LOUDLY Oh yeah, yeah.

397
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:18,480
60mph is very safe.

398
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:21,880
Above that, you've got to think of the age of them.

399
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:25,800
They are, after all... This one is actually as old as me.

400
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:27,680
- It was built the year I was born. - Really?

401
00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:28,880
Yeah. 1923, yeah.

402
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:31,280
Somebody was telling me... Is this really your last day?

403
00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:34,840
Definitely, yeah. I retire on Friday,

404
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:38,560
but I've got two little parties, tomorrow and the day after.

405
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,760
So your last job is actually testing the Flying Scotsman?

406
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:43,560
My last job, yes.

407
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:45,480
- That's a good way to go out. - It is, indeed.

408
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,120
Well, come in with a puff of smoke, go out with one, eh?

409
00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:51,640
- You wouldn't trail her today? - What?

410
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:53,480
You wouldn't like to trail her today?

411
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:55,360
Oh, no, no way, no.

412
00:25:55,360 --> 00:25:58,720
No, she's in good order now. They've made a good job of it.

413
00:26:03,120 --> 00:26:06,360
So what's it like riding on the footplate of the Flying Scotsman?

414
00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:10,240
Well, it shakes around a lot like a bucking horse, it's dirty,

415
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:12,840
you can hardly hear yourself speak, things blow in your eyes,

416
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:16,240
Your legs get hot from the firebox and your top half freezes

417
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:17,480
in the 60mph draught.

418
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:19,960
In other words, it's fantastic.

419
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:37,160
I'm not surprised that people want to give up their weekends

420
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,240
and their holidays and their fortunes to keep an engine like this going.

421
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,880
It would never get a train from London to Edinburgh in today's

422
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,600
four and a half hours, but when you see it charging

423
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:48,480
through the English countryside, you just forget that any other

424
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:49,960
kind of engine has ever existed.

425
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:06,880
You also forget that for the last 20 years, the Flying Scotsman

426
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:10,360
has been living on borrowed time, and it may be that one day the only

427
00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:13,840
relic we'll have of engines like that is films like this,

428
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,240
but then again, the fast diesels which now do the Flying Scotsman run

429
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:20,240
are also living on borrowed time, as electrification

430
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:23,600
marches up the east coast, and diesels have their own

431
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,840
devoted fans, and one day, perhaps, history will repeat itself

432
00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:30,680
and steam nostalgia films will be replaced by diesel nostalgia films.

433
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:40,480
But until then, what a way to go.

434
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,400
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd