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Great Scott! ‘Flying Scotsman’ returning to steam next year
How do you “verify” that it was actually going 100 mph? I’m not saying the claim is untrue, I’m just wondering if there is some outside authority that is charged with verifying these kinds of claims?
Shades of the 4501! Since the World Tour of 69-73 – Will they mount that Pyle Headlamp and the Silver Bell ( Southern Rwy loaded her, A Janey KnuckleCoupler and Cow Catcher she wore while on her US Tour???
George Benson: I think the Brits might want to wage a small war IF That 100mph record were ever questioned… I have no idea of the speeds that were attained in the USA while on Tour, but I can assure you she was rolling very quickly in a lot of areas on the USA Tour.
I think it was verified with a dynamometer car, the same way they verified Mallard’s 126mph run. There’s a fierce debate among UK railway fans over whether it was Flying Scotsman or City of Truro, which is said to have done it in 1904 but without scientific verification.
I wonder if someday she would return to the United States.
Did these locomotives have headlights?
Jim, it was fitted with the headlight in the picture to comply with US operating rules. In Britain, it has no such headlight at the top.
“Most famous steam loco in the world”? Get out of town. My first thought goes to 611, GS-class from the Espee and many more American locos come to mind first. “Scotsman” doesn’t even make the list.
Well of course back in the day steam loco speed records were all about PR. At this late date the argument could be made that the Milwaukee’s A class was the fastest. So why not build a repro. and see?
A group is hoping to build a repro PRR T1 which had a theoretical top speed of over 120mph.
Flying Scotsman was also fitted with a pilot for operation in the U.S. To help make it “disappear,” a group of fans were allowed to paint the pilot black just before the train left St. Louis for Chicago.
““Most famous steam loco in the world”? Get out of town. My first thought goes to 611, GS-class from the Espee and many more American locos come to mind first. “Scotsman” doesn’t even make the list.”
This is typical of the ethnocentrism that contaminates Americans. Although American railfans no doubt know locos like NKP 765, N&W 611, and SP 4449, the reality is that, thanks to media coverage throughout the former British empire, LNER 4472 has been publicised worldwide to far more people for far longer.
My educated guess is that she won’t be in her “black base paint coat” but will be in her British Railways “Brunswick Green” base paint insomuch as this glorious engine will be returning to life in her BR guise as No.60103.
And of course the Brits have done a wonderful job preserving notable locos and restoring them to top operating condition, which enables today’s very high speed runs over cooperating lines. The last comparable operations in the USA were the Burlington’s runs with 5632 (the incomparable O-5 Northern) in the mid-1960’s from Chicago out to Savannah and back.
I stumbled upon the Flying Scotsman in 1972 in San Francisco. I was in the process of getting out of the Navy and was walking around town sightseeing and spied smoke from up on Telegraph Hill. I could see it was a steam locomotive, so I wandered down to the waterfront where she was waiting to steam to Stockton, CA to be put into storage. I watched her pull out of town. Haven’t seen her since - hope she gets back into steam.
The Flying Scotsman is an ionic locomotive, famous for its speed but also for its non-stop capability. With its corridor tender it could run between London and Edinburgh. That alone is enough to justify it as the most famous locomotive of all time, and why the British government was persuaded to finance ist reconstruction. It is as much part of the British heritage as is Big Ben or the Tower of London… The USA has nothing similar
I was 3rd or 4th grade, my mom took my older brother and myself to Barstow to see it come through, we knew it was headed for San Francisco so we assumed ( we all know how that works out) it would go on the AT&SF, well either the wrong route or the wrong day! Not a complete failure though as we got to see the Super Chief & the El Capitan plus George Finkle running the Super C in addition to who knows how many merchandise freights, I’ll never forget.
I went to Penn Station in 1969 with 2 friends and I toured the train and sat in the cab. A man there said how the train was shipped as deck cargo on a Cunard ship and was almost washed overboard in a storm. In 2004 I was at the museum in York and spoke to a guy there and mentioned that. He said that it might have been him who told me that as he was on the U.S. trip. The souvenir print of the locomotive that I bought in 1969 hangs on the wall of my garage. Glad to see it back in operation; I’ll be in the U.K. in May and maybe I’ll see it for the third time.
@Richard Turle: Two Words. Big Boy. And for electric juice fans. GG1.