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Heritage Railway Opinion - 9 June 2011

Following the official opening of one of Europe’s finest steam lines, the completed Welsh Highland Railway, we have seen the debut of the blue King, No. 6023 Edward II, the emergence of the historically priceless beyond words GWR steam railmotor No. 93, the recreation of Dominion of New Zealand in all its main line glory, and the eagerly awaited appearance of a repaired Tornado in Brunswick green.

To crown everything, we now have the world’s most famous steam locomotive in one piece again and back with us.

There were many who voiced with disdain the return of Flying Scotsman in wartime black livery… until they saw it unveiled at the National Railway Museum. For me, the removal of the lining seems to create an illusion of the A3 being bigger than it actually is. No matter, Flying Scotsman is a locomotive that is larger than life, and having undergone more transformations than Dr Who since it was built in 1922/3 – upgraded from an original A1 to A3 in 1947, smoke deflectors, a double Kylchap chimney and a new Brunswick green livery as No. 60103 coming under British Railways, and cow-catchers for its ill-fated trip to the USA – is long established as a great British icon.

For ordinary people, it has come to symbolise the epitome of the great age of steam: when it was last relaunched under the ownership of Dr Tony Marchington in July 1999, police estimated that more than a million turned out to watch its comeback run from King’s Cross to York.

Indeed, Flying Scotsman is a symbol of our great nation, the one that invented steam railways and gave them to the rest of the world. Now it is the flagship of the ground-breaking British preservation movement which started 60 years ago, and has continued to defy the odds ever since, and also the jewel in the crown of the world’s greatest railway museum. The sight of such a magnificent machine is one of hope: a promise that despite the economic gloom of the past three years, everything does get better sooner or later, and while Britain has led the world in the past, it can do so again.

Flying Scotsman, however, may not have it all its own way this time round. In its absence, Tornado has been doing for the 21st century what No. 4472 did for the 20th, drawing crowds wherever it goes. Back with a vengeance in Brunswick green, its boiler troubles now hopefully over, this A1 will certainly be able to give the sole surviving A3 a run for its money.

Sixteen hours after the unveiling of Scotsman, I was privileged to be present at another official launch, that of the steam railmotor. Out of all those who attended the York event, it seemed that only Tyseley’s Bob Meanley was glutton enough for punishment to also make the long trip in the opposite direction to Didcot Railway Centre as soon as he woke up early after a late night. And what a feast awaited us there!

Chiltern Railways chairman Adrian Shooter, a great friend to preservation in many ways, had arranged a unique line-up showing the evolution of the modern railway.

At one end stood the wooden-bodied railmotor, and working from one side to another, you progressed through auto trains and GWR and BR railcars to a brand-new Class 172 Turbostar unit. Rarely has so much evolution of transport technology been so vividly portrayed in one scene, and if anything, it highlighted the huge importance of the railmotor. Once a humble vehicle for rural branches and suburban services, it can proudly strut its stuff with the likes of Flying Scotsman, although with a guilty secret: it sowed the seeds of a future national network populated by DMUs in which locomotive-hauled passenger trains are now rare.

The next milestone on the way is July’s official reconnection of Peak Rail to the main line at Matlock. This is a huge step towards bringing in visitors to the National Park by train and again underlining the clear case for the line to be extended northwards to Bakewell and ultimately through Monsal Dale to Buxton. See you all there!

Robin Jones
Editor