ways poster celebrating the centenary of the
Flying Scotsman. The locomotives shown are a
GNR Sturrock Single and a
Class 55 Deltic No. 2547
Doncaster in 1928 at
London King's Cross in 1948 in
Flying Scotsman livery at
York in October 2016 The
East Coast Main Line over which the
Flying Scotsman service runs was built in the 19th century by many small railway companies, but mergers and acquisitions led to only three companies controlling the route; the
North British Railway (NBR), the
North Eastern Railway (NER) and the
Great Northern Railway (GNR). In 1860 the three companies established the
East Coast Joint Stock for through services using common vehicles, and it is from this agreement that the
Flying Scotsman came about.
Operation The first
Special Scotch Express ran in 1862, with simultaneous departures at 10:00 from the GNR's
London King's Cross and the NBR's
Edinburgh Waverley. The original journey took hours, including a half-hour stop at
York for lunch. Increasing competition and improvements in railway technology saw this time reduced to hours by the time of the
Race to the North in 1888. From 1896, the train was modernised, introducing such features as corridors between carriages, heating, and dining cars. As passengers could now take lunch on the train, the York stop was reduced to 15 minutes, but the end-to-end journey time remained hours. Like the earlier carriages built for the service, this rolling stock was jointly owned by the three operating companies, and formed part of the pool known as the East Coast Joint Stock.
London and North Eastern Railway In 1923, the railways of Britain were
grouped into the 'Big Four'. As a consequence of this, all three members of the East Coast Joint Stock became part of the newly formed
London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). In 1924, the LNER officially renamed the 10:00
Special Scotch Express linking Edinburgh and London in both directions to
Flying Scotsman, its unofficial name since the 1870s. To further publicise the train, a recently built
A1 Class locomotive – at first numbered 1472 and, subsequently, 4472 – was
named after the service and put on display at the 1924
British Empire Exhibition. Due to a long-standing agreement between the competing
West Coast and
East Coast Main Line routes since the famous
railway races of 1888 and 1895, speeds of the Scotch expresses were limited, the time for the between the capitals being a pedestrian eight hours 15 minutes. However, subsequent to valve gear modifications, the A1 locomotive's coal consumption was drastically reduced, and it was thus found possible to run the service non-stop with a heavy train on one tender full of coal. Ten locomotives of
Classes A1 and A3, which were to be used on the service, were provided with
corridor tenders; these avoided engine crew fatigue by enabling a replacement driver and fireman to take over halfway without stopping the train. During the
General Strike on 10 May 1926, the
Flying Scotsman was derailed by strikers near
Newcastle. No. 4472 hauled the inaugural non-stop train from London on 1 May 1928, and it successfully ran the 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 a non-stop
Royal Scot service from
Euston to Edinburgh via Glasgow—). The
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.
Corridor tenders The non-stop runs were achieved with a special
corridor tender which had an increased coal capacity of nine tons instead of the usual eight. A driver and fireman were able to access the locomotive from the train through a narrow passageway inside the tender tank plus a flexible bellows
connection linking it with the leading coach. The passageway, which ran along the right-hand side of the tender, was high and wide. Further corridor tenders were built at intervals until 1938, and eventually there were 22; at various times, they were coupled to engines of classes
A1, A3,
A4 and
W1, but by the end of 1948, all were running with class A4 locomotives. Use of the corridor tender for changing crews on the move in an A4 locomotive is shown in the 1953
British Transport Films'
Elizabethan Express, the name of another London-to-Edinburgh non-stop train.
British Rail In the late 1950s
British Railways (BR) was committed to
dieselisation, and began devising a replacement for the Gresley Pacifics on the East Coast Main Line. On 6 October 1958, haulage of the service by
Class 40s commenced. In 1962
Class 55 Deltics took over, becoming a centrepiece of BR advertising, as the steam-hauled one had been for the LNER. Under BR, the
Flying Scotsman ceased to be a non-stop train, calling at
Newcastle,
York and
Peterborough. It also operated at times beyond Edinburgh. On 1 June 1981, the northbound journey was extended to
Aberdeen. The southbound journey commenced from
Glasgow Queen Street at 09:05 until 4 October 1982 when the name was transferred to the 07:30 from Aberdeen.
Privatisation The
Flying Scotsman name has been maintained by the operators of the
InterCity East Coast franchise since the
privatisation of British Rail; the former
Great North Eastern Railway even subtitled itself
The Route of the Flying Scotsman. The
Flying Scotsman was operated by
GNER from April 1996 until November 2007, then by
National Express East Coast until November 2009,
East Coast until April 2015, and
Virgin Trains East Coast until June 2018. Since then it has been operated by the government-owned
London North Eastern Railway. On 23 May 2011 the
Flying Scotsman brand was relaunched for a special daily fast service operated by East Coast departing Edinburgh at 05:40 and reaching London in exactly four hours, calling only at Newcastle, operated by an
InterCity 225 Mallard set.
91 class locomotive 91101 and
Driving Van Trailer 82205 were turned out in a special maroon livery for the launch of the service. East Coast said bringing back named trains would restore "a touch of glamour and romance". However, for the first time in its history, it ran in one direction only: there is no northbound equivalent service. In October 2015, 91101 and 82205 were revinyled in a new
Flying Scotsman livery. LNER's new "Azuma" units (
Class 800s and
Class 801s) took over the service on 1 August 2019. From 14 December 2025, the service began calling at York, increasing the journey time to 4 hours 13 minutes. Northbound, the fastest timetabled London to Edinburgh service (The Carolean Express) now takes 4 hours 8 minutes. Starting with the May 2026 timetable, the
Flying Scotsman name will be used for the 10:00 Edinburgh to London and 10:30 London to Edinburgh services, therefore restoring the named service in both directions. == The
Flying Scotswoman ==