0:00:12 > 0:00:15For generations, one iconic steam locomotive
0:00:15 > 0:00:20has symbolised all that was great about British engineering -
0:00:20 > 0:00:21the Flying Scotsman.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Designed by one of Britain's most gifted railway designers
0:00:29 > 0:00:32and built by a team of skilled workers,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35the Flying Scotsman was a perfect example
0:00:35 > 0:00:38of British craftsmanship at its best.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42It was a very, very lithe, handsome machine.
0:00:42 > 0:00:43It looks like a mechanical racehorse,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46and that, of course, is what it was.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54In an age when British engineering had so much to be proud of,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57the Flying Scotsman was a record-breaker -
0:00:57 > 0:01:01the first steam engine to reach 100 miles an hour,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04the first to run nonstop between London and Edinburgh,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07and the first to star in its own feature film.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11It's a magic locomotive.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15It's a bit like Apollo, it's a bit like Saturn V.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21Such was the love affair with the Flying Scotsman
0:01:21 > 0:01:25that even after steam was replaced by more modern technologies,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29it defied all expectations and survived.
0:01:29 > 0:01:35It was rescued three times by three different millionaires.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39The whole idea of buying an express passenger locomotive from British Railways
0:01:39 > 0:01:42was something completely new. Nobody had ever done it before.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47This is the story of that remarkable adventure,
0:01:47 > 0:01:49from Flying Scotsman's first days in the spotlight
0:01:49 > 0:01:52to a last-minute escape from the breakers' yard -
0:01:52 > 0:01:57a 90-year journey that captured the hearts of a nation.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17It's spring 2004,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21and the nation's favourite steam engine is coming home
0:02:21 > 0:02:23to the National Railway Museum.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Crowds of well-wishers have turned out to celebrate.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31- When you got home, you were black and covered in soot. - Oh, yes.- And muck in your eyes.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35You could put your head out the window then, you see.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39You can't do that now. But you could smell the steam and the smoke.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43And go over the bridge and get your knickers all black with soot.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48It took a massive public fundraising effort
0:02:48 > 0:02:51to save Flying Scotsman for the nation.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53More than 6,000 individual donations
0:02:53 > 0:02:56ranged from children's pocket money...
0:02:56 > 0:03:00If we don't give our pocket money, it might get sold to another country.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03..to pensioners' postal orders
0:03:03 > 0:03:06and the deep pockets of Sir Richard Branson.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:03:08 > 0:03:11They did it because the Flying Scotsman
0:03:11 > 0:03:13strikes a special chord with us.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18For lots of people, Flying Scotsman is a part of what makes them British.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21For many, it's simply part of the nation's DNA.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24And it's been like that from the beginning.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38After the ravages and upheaval of the Great War,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Britain was beginning to get back to normal.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45People returned to work and began taking holidays once more.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51But travelling around the country wasn't easy.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56The road network was poor and cars were still an expensive luxury.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Most people used the train.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Railways were booming after the First World War.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06Passenger traffic was extremely heavy.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10And the traffic, for example, that went from Edinburgh to King's Cross
0:04:10 > 0:04:13or King's Cross to Edinburgh up the East Coast Main Line,
0:04:13 > 0:04:14was enormous and growing.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19But the railways themselves were in a mess.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Lack of investment during the war
0:04:22 > 0:04:25meant that most of the 120 different companies ran at a loss.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31In 1921, the Government decided to reorganise them
0:04:31 > 0:04:32into just four groups.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37The Big Four set about showcasing the best of what they had.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40The railways realised very early on in their history
0:04:40 > 0:04:42that they could make what might, to some people,
0:04:42 > 0:04:43seem quite an unattractive journey
0:04:43 > 0:04:47much more attractive by giving it an evocative name,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50and by the 1920s this had really reached a fine art.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52The Great Western Railway had its Cornish Riviera,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56the London, Midland and Scottish had its Royal Scot,
0:04:56 > 0:04:58the Southern Railway had the Golden Arrow but the most famous,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00the most evocative of all,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03was the London and North Eastern Railway's Flying Scotsman.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11The London and North Eastern Railway began operating 6,500 miles of track
0:05:11 > 0:05:15on January the 1st, 1923.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19Its chief mechanical engineer was a young locomotive designer,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21Nigel Gresley.
0:05:23 > 0:05:24The son of a vicar,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28he was educated at the exclusive Marlborough College,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and he began his career as a premium apprentice
0:05:31 > 0:05:35in the enormous engineering works in Crewe.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40Just 43 when he took over the reins at the LNER,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44he became responsible for almost 8,000 locomotives,
0:05:44 > 0:05:49ranging from small shunting engines to powerful expresses.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56However, the LNER board thought none were powerful enough
0:05:56 > 0:05:59to pull the increasingly long and heavy trains
0:05:59 > 0:06:02on the London to Edinburgh route.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Gresley planned to solve the problem
0:06:05 > 0:06:08by designing a new class of super locomotive.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13They would be bigger and more powerful
0:06:13 > 0:06:16than any locomotive ever seen in Britain.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20And they would be built here,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23at the LNER's main railway engineering works in Doncaster.
0:06:25 > 0:06:31In the 1920s, more than 4,500 people worked on this site.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33And Doncaster wasn't unusual.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37Britain was still a world leader in heavy engineering.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Towns like Derby, Swindon and Crewe
0:06:40 > 0:06:44were dominated by massive railway engineering works.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47They all employed thousands of skilled men.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53Peter Tuffrey has spent years
0:06:53 > 0:06:56researching the world of the Doncaster Plant Works.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03There would be lots of locomotives all lined up here,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06all waiting to go into the repair shop
0:07:06 > 0:07:09for what was called heavy general repairs.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13They would come out and they would go into the paint shop here
0:07:13 > 0:07:17and they would be painted, lined, and they would look new and pristine
0:07:17 > 0:07:20and go out onto the main line to do their work.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23Most of the original plant works have been demolished,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26but the erecting shop is still here.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Used these days to repair engines,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32in the 1920s, it's where they assembled them.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36The LNER, like the other railway companies,
0:07:36 > 0:07:39was proud of its engineering tradition
0:07:39 > 0:07:42and employed a full-time photographer here.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44What a great job it must have been,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46coming every day to photograph locomotives.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49The sort of job I would have liked, that.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54You would always recognise the foreman because he would be,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58generally, a portly sort of guy with a bowler hat.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00And all the workers would be wearing flat caps
0:08:00 > 0:08:02and he would be watching you.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09And one thing that does shock me is how young some of the workers are.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12They would be 13 and 14, perhaps.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15That's quite alarming for us today, I think,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19considering the dangers you would find in working conditions here.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32This was where the Doncaster workforce
0:08:32 > 0:08:34would turn Gresley's designs
0:08:34 > 0:08:38for the biggest locomotive ever seen in Britain into the real thing.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45The workforce included every engineering skill imaginable.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49There were blacksmiths, fitters, boiler makers,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52and every component was made in the plant.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58The atmosphere would have been charged with heat, sweat and noise.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02It really was a hell hole.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07The noise in the boiler shop and the repair shop was fantastic.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Which is probably one reason why I'm deaf today!
0:09:13 > 0:09:16When he began work as a premium apprentice in Doncaster,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18Peter Townend was just 16.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25Everything came in as the sort of raw material for a locomotive,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27forged and cast.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29It got people heating up rivets
0:09:29 > 0:09:32and putting through holes and bashing them.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41It was out of this cauldron of heat and noise
0:09:41 > 0:09:46that the third of Nigel Gresley's new class of super locomotive
0:09:46 > 0:09:49emerged on the 7th of February, 1923.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54The reaction to it, strikingly, from the men is,
0:09:54 > 0:09:56"This is colossal,
0:09:56 > 0:09:58"this is an enormous machine."
0:09:58 > 0:10:02And not only is it enormous, but, for the first time
0:10:02 > 0:10:07the driver has been thought of and all the controls are easily to hand.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11And behind the controls was an enormous firebox
0:10:11 > 0:10:14with a 42-inch square grate.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16The scale of the fire it produced
0:10:16 > 0:10:20made sure the engine could maintain steam pressure over long distances.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24But it wasn't just size
0:10:24 > 0:10:27that distinguished this new class of locomotive
0:10:27 > 0:10:28from what had gone before.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31The wheel arrangement was completely new.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35The most powerful locomotives in the LNER fleet
0:10:35 > 0:10:37had a wheel arrangement of four leading wheels,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39four main driving wheels
0:10:39 > 0:10:42and two trailing wheels under the cab.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48This 4-4-2 wheel arrangement was known as an Atlantic class.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Gresley put two extra driving wheels in his new engine
0:10:52 > 0:10:55and an extra concealed piston to drive them.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57It was called a Pacific class.
0:11:01 > 0:11:07By February 1923, the three new LNER Pacifics went to work
0:11:07 > 0:11:10pulling the heavy trains on the Flying Scotsman route
0:11:10 > 0:11:12between London and Edinburgh.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19The third one of these huge Pacifics that they built doesn't have a name.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21It runs around the network
0:11:21 > 0:11:24and it does the normal work that they want it to do.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28And then along comes this invitation from the British Empire Exhibition
0:11:28 > 0:11:30to put on a big display
0:11:30 > 0:11:34in what is the biggest exhibition the world has ever seen.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46The site of the exhibition in North London was massive.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48It included a new football stadium,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52a specially built train link to central London
0:11:52 > 0:11:55and the world's first bus station.
0:11:55 > 0:11:5856 countries of the Empire were represented,
0:11:58 > 0:12:05and it was opened by King George V on the 23rd of April, 1924.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09The British Empire Exhibition was held two years running,
0:12:09 > 0:12:10in 1924 and 1925.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14It was a great post-First World War celebration
0:12:14 > 0:12:17of Britain and its Empire.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20It was a celebration of what the Empire could make,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23including steam locomotives, of course,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27and over two years, millions and millions of people came through
0:12:27 > 0:12:30those exhibition halls at Wembley.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35At its heart were three massive palaces dedicated to art,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39industry and engineering, and the British railway companies
0:12:39 > 0:12:42were invited to display the best of their work.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45LNER saw it as a perfect opportunity
0:12:45 > 0:12:49to promote their latest super Pacific class.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Their newest Pacific locomotive was polished and wrapped up,
0:12:53 > 0:12:57but before they sent it off to Wembley, it needed a name.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Tradition had it that locomotives were called after famous people,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03places or royalty.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06But LNER again came up with something new.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10They named the engine after their famous flagship train service.
0:13:10 > 0:13:15They named the locomotive Flying Scotsman.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17It goes to the Empire Exhibition,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19and not only have you got this loco
0:13:19 > 0:13:22that looks colossal in British terms,
0:13:22 > 0:13:26but it has got the name on the side, Flying Scotsman,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29and, really, a legend is born at that moment.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34The exhibition had 27 million visitors
0:13:34 > 0:13:36over the course of its two years
0:13:36 > 0:13:39and Flying Scotsman was the star of the show.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41The stroke of genius in its naming
0:13:41 > 0:13:44and the huge exposure it received at Wembley
0:13:44 > 0:13:48were the first steps on a journey to celebrity status.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58Flying Scotsman went back to the job
0:13:58 > 0:14:01of pulling trains from London to Edinburgh.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03But competition for rail passengers was intense
0:14:03 > 0:14:06and the LNER was constantly searching
0:14:06 > 0:14:09for new ways to outdo its great rival,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12the London, Midland and Scottish railway,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16which ran a daily service from London to Glasgow - the Royal Scot.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20In 1928, they came up with an idea
0:14:20 > 0:14:25that would take Flying Scotsman a step further to becoming a legend.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29It would star in an attempt on a world record.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33In Gresley's Pacifics, we have, for the first time,
0:14:33 > 0:14:35locomotives with the power and the stamina
0:14:35 > 0:14:38to run all the way nonstop from London to Edinburgh.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41And the marketing department quickly realised this
0:14:41 > 0:14:43and decided they wanted to make use of that capability.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50It would be a daunting challenge.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55No railway company in the world had ever managed to run a train nonstop
0:14:55 > 0:14:58over 390 miles.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02But there were aspects of Flying Scotsman's design which would help.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04The boiler could produce tremendous power.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08It was large enough to be able to feed three cylinders with steam
0:15:08 > 0:15:11at full pressure, and for long periods.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17The limitations weren't technical.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19The locomotives could carry enough coal,
0:15:19 > 0:15:20they could pick up water en route.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23The problem was, to ask a driver and fireman to run that locomotive
0:15:23 > 0:15:25all the way from London to Edinburgh
0:15:25 > 0:15:27was pushing the limits of human endurance,
0:15:27 > 0:15:29if it wasn't downright dangerous.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Normally, the train would stop at a station
0:15:33 > 0:15:36and a second crew take over, but this was different.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Because the journey was going to be nonstop,
0:15:39 > 0:15:42a second crew would need to be on the train from the outset.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51The problem Gresley had was that you have your first crew here in the cab of the locomotive,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54you have the replacement crew here in the first coach,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58and on normal tenders, you can't get them across.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02Gresley's genius was to put a corridor through the tender.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06He designs this and, famously, he checks it out
0:16:06 > 0:16:09by putting some chairs along the side of his dining room,
0:16:09 > 0:16:12and one of his daughters discovers him sort of squeezing along -
0:16:12 > 0:16:16cos he's quite a big bloke - squeezing along behind these chairs,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18and he says, "Well, if I can get through here,
0:16:18 > 0:16:20"my crews can get through here."
0:16:25 > 0:16:28In great secrecy, Doncaster Works built a corridor tender,
0:16:28 > 0:16:30and on May the 1st, Flying Scotsman sallied forth
0:16:30 > 0:16:33from King's Cross on her way to Edinburgh.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43It was a momentous day for everyone,
0:16:43 > 0:16:46but especially for two of the passengers.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51Well, I met my wife for the very first time
0:16:51 > 0:16:55on this Flying Scotsman train
0:16:55 > 0:16:58on the 1st of May, 1928.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07Everybody was matey and excited about this
0:17:07 > 0:17:10and we were being greeted on the way
0:17:10 > 0:17:15by waving crowds with flags and banners
0:17:15 > 0:17:17and all the town bands were turning out.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21Everybody on the train got most tremendously friendly.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26And we went to lunch and we were engaged within three weeks' time.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30And so I was let in for 40 years' hard labour.
0:17:30 > 0:17:36Well, I think that it was 40 years hard for me, not for you, anyway!
0:17:42 > 0:17:46To run nonstop from London to Edinburgh,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49it's a massive piece of co-ordination.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53There's over 200 signal boxes en route.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57You only need one of those signal men to pull the signals to red and you stop.
0:17:58 > 0:17:59And they don't stop.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06They completed the 390-mile journey in just over eight hours -
0:18:06 > 0:18:0812 minutes ahead of schedule.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13It was a world first and Gresley's stroke of genius
0:18:13 > 0:18:15was to change the way people travelled,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18not just in Britain, but across the globe.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34The nonstop run had been a huge triumph for Flying Scotsman.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38It had its first world record and its reputation was growing.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47The LNER now began to use it to promote the company's profile
0:18:47 > 0:18:50as fast, efficient and forward-looking.
0:18:56 > 0:19:01The man behind the strategy was the head of advertising, Cecil Dandridge.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03He took up his post in 1928
0:19:03 > 0:19:08and set about creating a distinctly modern identity for the company.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15One of the first things Dandridge did when he got his new job as advertising manager
0:19:15 > 0:19:18was to look out for a new typeface for the LNER,
0:19:18 > 0:19:22cos type really can suggest a very old-fashioned or a very modern organisation,
0:19:22 > 0:19:24depending on what the type looks like,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26whether it's serif or sans-serif, curly or straight,
0:19:26 > 0:19:28Victorian or modern.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33Dandridge went for the modern. He chose a revolutionary typeface -
0:19:33 > 0:19:37Gill Sans - from one of the most extraordinary designers
0:19:37 > 0:19:41of the interwar years, Eric Gill.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46Gill had first used his typeface on a friend's bookshop in Bristol.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49LNER took the new style to new heights.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53I think LNER were making a very bold decision.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58in taking up Eric Gill's very modern typeface,
0:19:58 > 0:19:59the sans-serif.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03It was like nothing that had been seen before.
0:20:03 > 0:20:09He was a very strange mixture of the religious and the controversial.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13He was a risk-taker.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17He was mad on sex, as one of his friends described him,
0:20:17 > 0:20:22and by the time that LNER were commissioning Gill,
0:20:22 > 0:20:26he was pretty notorious in the public domain.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Eric Gill's type was so cool, so modern, so clean, so crisp,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34so dynamic, that Dandridge thought,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37"That's the image for a fast railway."
0:20:37 > 0:20:38It went on its posters,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41it went on its timetables, it went on its locomotives,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45it went on its station name boards, and it looked terrific.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Dandridge commissioned superb modern posters.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53Artists like Tom Purvis, Fred Taylor,
0:20:53 > 0:20:54Frank Newbould -
0:20:54 > 0:20:58these were some of the great poster artists of the 1930s.
0:20:58 > 0:20:59And if you look at the posters today,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02the combination of these really clear graphic images
0:21:02 > 0:21:05celebrating East Coast holiday resorts
0:21:05 > 0:21:07or the Flying Scotsman train,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09combined with Gill Sans lettering...
0:21:09 > 0:21:11Gosh, they look modern even today.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Dandridge and his team were using Flying Scotsman
0:21:21 > 0:21:24to create a brand, based on style and speed.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27And although they were doing it against a background
0:21:27 > 0:21:30of the worst economic depression in Britain's history, it worked.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33Crowds of people would line the platform to take a look
0:21:33 > 0:21:38at the last word in luxury travel that they could never afford.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46It was glamour, style, service.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Cocktail bars, cinema coaches showing newsreels,
0:21:50 > 0:21:52hairdressers.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00A typical meal in the restaurant car might include pea soup,
0:22:00 > 0:22:04followed by roast turbot or roast mutton,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07and finishing with Cabinet pudding and cheese and biscuits,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10all served with fine wines at your table.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16All this happened on the Flying Scotsman train itself.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34By the late 1920s, the public's love affair with Flying Scotsman
0:22:34 > 0:22:39was well and truly established, and was enhanced in 1929
0:22:39 > 0:22:42when the locomotive achieved another first.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45It was to star in its own feature film.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53When you see the Flying Scotsman train racing through
0:22:53 > 0:22:56a very, very, you know, what we'd call today
0:22:56 > 0:22:58an unspoilt British landscape,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01it looks absolutely terrific and you feel watching it,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03"I'd like to be on board that train."
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Well, that was certainly what the advertising manager of the LNER wanted you to think.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12What the company didn't anticipate was just how the locomotive
0:23:12 > 0:23:14was going to be used in the film.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19The LNER initially give them full access
0:23:19 > 0:23:22and they wheel out the locomotive, the Flying Scotsman.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25And they take over the Hertford loop to run the train on
0:23:25 > 0:23:29so they can do all their stunts and everything else in real time
0:23:29 > 0:23:31with the real train.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37Although the LNER aren't too impressed with the actual plotline,
0:23:37 > 0:23:39which includes, at one stage,
0:23:39 > 0:23:41the heroine, Pauline Johnson,
0:23:41 > 0:23:43actually climbs out the outside of the train
0:23:43 > 0:23:45and climbs along the train.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49It's a scary thing, because it's obviously filmed in real time,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52without any stunt people at all.
0:23:54 > 0:23:55One of the climatic passages of the film
0:23:55 > 0:23:57is where the fireman, who's been sacked,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01clambers over the tender while the train's moving
0:24:01 > 0:24:03in a bid to knock out the driver.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08It was hair-raising, it was scary and it was dangerous to all involved.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13The focus on the locomotive carries on throughout the movie.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17The film ends with the driver looking up at Flying Scotsman's nameplate
0:24:17 > 0:24:20above these huge driving wheels with a tear in his eye
0:24:20 > 0:24:23and it goes to show that it wasn't Pauline Johnson or Ray Milland
0:24:23 > 0:24:27who were the stars of this film, it was Flying Scotsman herself.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33Old Bob, the driver in the film,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37is portrayed as having a very human relationship with his engine.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41But what was it like in the real world?
0:24:41 > 0:24:44King's Cross driver Ron Kennedy drove the Flying Scotsman
0:24:44 > 0:24:48regularly in the 1940s and '50s.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50It was like having control of a massive monster.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52And if you were a good engineman -
0:24:52 > 0:24:55and there's a different between drivers and enginemen -
0:24:55 > 0:24:56if you were a good engineman,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59you used to talk to it and it would talk to you.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01TRAIN WHISTLES
0:25:03 > 0:25:07I first met this engine as an engine cleaner.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11Eventually, I became a driver and was driving the same engine.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16You would have the wind against you and maybe rain,
0:25:16 > 0:25:20and the wind made a difference, even to a massive engine like this.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23You needed a good fireman to produce the steam
0:25:23 > 0:25:25because it was a fireman that gave you the power of the steam.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32It was controlling the speed. You had to know the speeds of the track.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35I mean, it's not start up and go as fast as you can.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37There's certain speeds that you're allowed to do.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39Of course, when we were first working on these things,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43there were no speedometers, drivers never had watches to see the time,
0:25:43 > 0:25:45you had to look at the clock on the station
0:25:45 > 0:25:48or look at the clock in the signal box as you ran past to know the time.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59Speed had always been part of the LNER brand, and in 1934,
0:25:59 > 0:26:04speed was at the heart of Nigel Gresley's plan to use Flying Scotsman
0:26:04 > 0:26:08for the company's most audacious publicity coup to date.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11An attempt on another world record.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13To run at 100 miles an hour.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19Because locomotives weren't fitted with speedometers,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Gresley coupled a dynamometer car to the train.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30The driver on that journey was a man called Bill Sparshatt.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33Sparshatt apparently said, when they left Kings Cross station -
0:26:33 > 0:26:35there were bystanders there - and he said
0:26:35 > 0:26:38"If we hit anything today, we'll hit it hard."
0:26:48 > 0:26:49Speed started to rise.
0:26:49 > 0:26:5380, 85, 90, 95...
0:26:55 > 0:27:00And just before she reached the station of Essendine and had to slow down, she reached the magic ton.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04She was the first steam locomotive anywhere in the world
0:27:04 > 0:27:05to have verifiably done so.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16The driver and fireman arrived at Kings Cross to a celebrity welcome.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Dandridge made sure the press were on hand
0:27:19 > 0:27:22to record yet another remarkable achievement.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24It made the front page of the newspapers.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27The nation was reading about Flying Scotsman
0:27:27 > 0:27:29and the nation was captivated.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35Everyone, young as well as old, wanted to be part of the story.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40If you're thinking trains
0:27:40 > 0:27:45and you don't know everything about model railways,
0:27:45 > 0:27:46Flying Scotsman rings a bell.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50"I've heard about that. That's the set I want, Daddy."
0:27:53 > 0:27:56It's a magic locomotive,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00a bit like Apollo, a bit like Saturn V.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04In those days, it was fast travel.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07In the '20s, there were very few people
0:28:07 > 0:28:11who actually went further than the town that was next to their village.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15So going up to Scotland was like going to another world.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17Another universe, quite frankly.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20The Flying Scotsman represented that.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22They were able to have
0:28:22 > 0:28:27a little bit of that sort of travel in their own home with a model.
0:28:37 > 0:28:38Models of Flying Scotsman
0:28:38 > 0:28:41helped spread its reputation across the country.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Toy manufacturers like Hornby and Bassett Lowke quickly found
0:28:46 > 0:28:50the Flying Scotsman became their most popular product.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53They were manufacturing replicas using technologies similar
0:28:53 > 0:28:56to those that had been used to build the real thing.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05The name Flying Scotsman was everywhere.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09In just 11 years, it had become a national celebrity.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18Flying Scotsman was the fastest steam locomotive in the world.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20It could run at 100 miles an hour.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24It ran the world's longest distance, nonstop train in the world,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27the Flying Scotsman from Edinburgh Waverley to Kings Cross
0:29:27 > 0:29:29and back again.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31It looked wonderful.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36It was speed, sensational beauty, record breaking,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39how could the locomotive NOT woo the public?
0:29:46 > 0:29:50But celebrity status is nothing if not fickle.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53At the very peak of its fame,
0:29:53 > 0:29:58the spotlight moved on and Flying Scotsman's star began to wane.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05In 1935, Nigel Gresley unveiled a radically new streamlined engine -
0:30:05 > 0:30:07the A4 Pacific.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11Three years later, one of them - Mallard -
0:30:11 > 0:30:13would run at 126 miles per hour,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16eclipsing Flying Scotsman's record.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23But by September 1939, there were more pressing concerns.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Britain, once again, was at war.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29World records and glamorous travel were forgotten.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33Flying Scotsman, along with the rest of Britain's fleet of steam engines,
0:30:33 > 0:30:38was put to work in the service of the country and largely ignored.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47The demands of war put severe strains on the railways,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50leaving them completely run down
0:30:50 > 0:30:53and, in 1948, they were nationalised.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58The LNER disappeared and Flying Scotsman acquired a new owner -
0:30:58 > 0:31:00British Rail - and a new number.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Then, as Britain moved into the '50s,
0:31:04 > 0:31:07an economic boom put money into people's pockets
0:31:07 > 0:31:11and consumer spending began to change the way they lived.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13Changes in travel were part of the revolution.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17The railways faced a new and potentially lethal competitor.
0:31:26 > 0:31:31The number of cars in Britain grew from just over 20,000 in 1930
0:31:31 > 0:31:33to almost two million in 1960.
0:31:39 > 0:31:411959 was a key year.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44It was the year the first motorway opened
0:31:44 > 0:31:48and the car that became the icon of the road, the Mini, was launched.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58The road offered a freedom that the railway couldn't match.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01While young people going on holiday in Cornwall in 1929
0:32:01 > 0:32:03had to use the train,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06those in 1959 went on their scooters.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16The consequences for Britain's railways were enormous.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19They began to lose passengers and freight.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21Financial losses mounted.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24If they were going to survive, they would need to modernise
0:32:24 > 0:32:29and, in 1955, they published a modernisation plan.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31Steam would go.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44For Flying Scotsman, this was a death sentence.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48Along with most of Britain's steam engines, it would be scrapped.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54Towards the end of 1962, British Rail announced
0:32:54 > 0:32:58that Flying Scotsman would go to the breaker's yard in the new year.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03The locomotive had been around for 40 years.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06But this was the defining moment in its history.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11A group called Save Our Scotsman tried to buy it,
0:33:11 > 0:33:16but couldn't get near British Rail's asking price of £3,000 -
0:33:16 > 0:33:18£50,000 in today's money.
0:33:19 > 0:33:20Then at the 11th hour,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24in stepped a very rich steam enthusiast - Alan Pegler.
0:33:26 > 0:33:31Alan Pegler was the son of a wealthy industrial family in Nottinghamshire.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33From a very young age, he was obsessed with railways.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37When he acquired a private pilot's licence, aged just 17,
0:33:37 > 0:33:42he used it to chase trains, always his beloved LNER.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45In the war, he flew Skua dive bombers for the Fleet Air Arm
0:33:45 > 0:33:49and, after the war, he found himself trying to run Northern Rubber,
0:33:49 > 0:33:51his family company, which effectively ran itself.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53So he found himself in an office,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57staring out of the window at the railway, with not a great deal to do.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03Alan Pegler had known Flying Scotsman from the beginning.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08After the First War, the early 1920s, that engine, Flying Scotsman,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11was on exhibition at Wembley.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15I was taken by an uncle, or somebody or other, to that exhibition,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18sat in the driver's seat of that engine and it was, to me,
0:34:18 > 0:34:23the most tremendous thrill and I got a great click out of all that.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26Alan Pegler had been involved
0:34:26 > 0:34:29in railway preservation from the early 1950s.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32When he heard that Scotsman was about to disappear,
0:34:32 > 0:34:34he dug deep into his pockets.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36He bought it.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40If nobody was going to do anything about it, I wanted to
0:34:40 > 0:34:42because it seemed to me to be something wrong
0:34:42 > 0:34:45that this famous class of engines should all get scrapped.
0:34:49 > 0:34:54I can remember when my father bought the engine. I was nine years old
0:34:54 > 0:34:57and he came upstairs and he sat on my bed
0:34:57 > 0:34:59and he said, "Today, I bought a steam engine."
0:35:01 > 0:35:04And he was sparkling. He really was.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06It was like a little boy
0:35:06 > 0:35:09who had just been out and bought a great big toy!
0:35:12 > 0:35:13The whole idea of buying
0:35:13 > 0:35:16an express passenger locomotive from British Railways
0:35:16 > 0:35:19was something completely new. Nobody had ever done it before.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24It would be like going to British Airways today and asking to buy a Jumbo Jet off them.
0:35:24 > 0:35:25It was an astonishing notion
0:35:25 > 0:35:28and probably only Alan Pegler could have done it.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33It was January 1963.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37In 40 years of service, the nation's favourite locomotive
0:35:37 > 0:35:41had covered millions of miles pulling an express passenger train,
0:35:41 > 0:35:43achieved two world records
0:35:43 > 0:35:46and, by the skin of its teeth, survived the breaker's yard.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51Waving it on to the next stage of its career,
0:35:51 > 0:35:55the crowds must have wondered what Alan Pegler had planned for it.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01He planned to rebuild the legend of the Scotsman.
0:36:01 > 0:36:03He began by taking it back to Doncaster
0:36:03 > 0:36:05and restoring it to its LNER livery.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10The locomotive went into a shed at the old plant works
0:36:10 > 0:36:13and emerged three weeks later transformed,
0:36:13 > 0:36:19with its original apple green coat and its old number, 4472.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23Then he commissioned its portrait.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29'Flying Scotsman is having her portrait painted by Terence Cuneo.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33'This is just a sketch for the oil painting
0:36:33 > 0:36:37'and Terence Cuneo works from that back in his studio.
0:36:37 > 0:36:38'Looks terrific, doesn't she?'
0:36:40 > 0:36:44She did. This TV programme, narrated by Johnny Morris,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48one of the 1960s' most popular voices, showed that Pegler had inherited
0:36:48 > 0:36:53all the LNER's skills in keeping Flying Scotsman in the public eye.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59He had an agreement with British Rail
0:36:59 > 0:37:03that gave Flying Scotsman unique access to the rail network.
0:37:07 > 0:37:12From 1963 until 1968, he used the agreement to the full.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17Very nice to be in on time and greeted by such a good crowd.
0:37:17 > 0:37:19There is nothing at all in the world
0:37:19 > 0:37:21like riding on a steam locomotive at speed.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24I think anybody who's been lucky enough to do it would admit that.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30He started to send the locomotive on rail tours all over the country
0:37:30 > 0:37:32and, in doing so, he brought Flying Scotsman
0:37:32 > 0:37:37to an entirely new audience of people who'd never seen it before.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39Crowds thronged the line side,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42people put pennies on the rails for Flying Scotsman to crush -
0:37:42 > 0:37:45everyone wanted a memento, everyone wanted to see it.
0:37:47 > 0:37:49'I say, just look at the crowd.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53'It's a bit embarrassing to be gawped at so early in the day.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58'Come on, let's push on and make way
0:37:58 > 0:38:02'for that ordinary-looking thing that's rattling up behind.
0:38:02 > 0:38:03'All right, we're moving!'
0:38:05 > 0:38:09There's something almost wonderfully comic about Flying Scotsman
0:38:09 > 0:38:11running on British Railways in the '60s.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15This engine, brought back to its 1920s condition.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19It's like a snub to the Beeching-era management
0:38:19 > 0:38:22who really were white-heat-of-technology merchants.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Flying Scotsman simply defied that
0:38:25 > 0:38:29and matters were made worse for the management of British Railways
0:38:29 > 0:38:31because Flying Scotsman was so popular.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37"You know, you can't turn engines round like you used to."
0:38:37 > 0:38:42"Can't you?" "No, no. Turntables are dying out."
0:38:42 > 0:38:45"Oh, because these diesel things can be driven from either end?
0:38:45 > 0:38:48"They don't need to be turned round." "Exactly."
0:38:48 > 0:38:51"You know, all the fun is going out of life.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54"This is one of the railway's best bits of theatre.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57"It's better than the revolving stage at the London Palladium."
0:39:02 > 0:39:04In the years between the wars,
0:39:04 > 0:39:05LNER had used the newspapers
0:39:05 > 0:39:09and newsreels to promote Flying Scotsman.
0:39:09 > 0:39:11Alan Pegler used television.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14He knows what he's got
0:39:14 > 0:39:18and he starts rebuilding the legend of Flying Scotsman.
0:39:18 > 0:39:23He immediately engages a professional PR company based in London,
0:39:23 > 0:39:27and they're easily as good as the LNER people were in the '20s.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30You can see this from the kind of media they get
0:39:30 > 0:39:33because, within a couple of years of his ownership of it,
0:39:33 > 0:39:35it's on Blue Peter.
0:39:37 > 0:39:38Well, this is the Flying Scotsman,
0:39:38 > 0:39:43the most famous steam locomotive in the world.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47Today, she's going to make her very last nonstop steam run
0:39:47 > 0:39:50to commemorate the old days of steam on the London to Brighton line.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52The train is packed full of railway enthusiasts,
0:39:52 > 0:39:57but I've got special permission to ride on the footplate.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01It's very nearly time to be off, so I'd better climb aboard.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05A whole generation of people believed almost everything John Noakes said.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09So it must be true. The most famous locomotive in the world.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13This marriage of media and the image of Flying Scotsman,
0:40:13 > 0:40:15the steam locomotive,
0:40:15 > 0:40:19as an important symbol of the steam age goes on right through
0:40:19 > 0:40:27until you get into '68 when they make the documentary of Flying Scotsman's nonstop run from London to Edinburgh.
0:40:33 > 0:40:34Right away.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36STEAM WHISTLE BLOWS
0:40:40 > 0:40:45Alan Pegler wanted to attempt a nonstop run in 1968 to coincide
0:40:45 > 0:40:50with the 40th anniversary of the world-record run in 1928.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52It was going to be a national event,
0:40:52 > 0:40:55large crowds were expected on the track side
0:40:55 > 0:40:58and the BBC responded to the nation's enduring love affair
0:40:58 > 0:41:02with the Scotsman by making a documentary about the attempt.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05They used seven camera crews,
0:41:05 > 0:41:08including two helicopters, to shoot the programme.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15The role of the BBC, I think, was pretty consistent from the moment
0:41:15 > 0:41:18when steam locomotives were really finally under threat.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22Before then, there were quite a lot of films made with the BBC saying,
0:41:22 > 0:41:26"It's the end of these old timers and the new world has to come..."
0:41:26 > 0:41:28that sort of idea in the '50s and '60s.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32Then with the steam locomotives finally going, the tone changes.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35A sense of, not just nostalgia,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38a sense that something very, very beautiful
0:41:38 > 0:41:42was about to slip past all our fingers.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47Well, I spent 47 year on the railways
0:41:47 > 0:41:52and it's a big change from my days to what it is today.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57And that's what I've come for today because I think...
0:41:57 > 0:41:59I'm approaching 80
0:41:59 > 0:42:03and I think it'll be the last time I shall see a steam engine.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17The passengers included some very special railway fans,
0:42:17 > 0:42:21including the author of Thomas the Tank Engine, the Rev Wilbert Awdry.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28I have a railway background and, quite naturally,
0:42:28 > 0:42:32the interest transferred itself to my son
0:42:32 > 0:42:37and when he was ill with measles at the age of three,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40it was most natural for me
0:42:40 > 0:42:44to tell him stories about trains.
0:42:46 > 0:42:51And he said, "Daddy, what are the engines' names?"
0:42:53 > 0:42:58And I invented names on the spur of the moment - Edward, Gordon, Henry.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01And so, there it was.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08Just like the Reverend's books,
0:43:08 > 0:43:13the BBC film was capturing a world that enthralled the public.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15But it was a world that was disappearing.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19No-one was even sure that Flying Scotsman would make it to Edinburgh.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25I did it then simply because I had a feeling
0:43:25 > 0:43:26that it would be impossible to do it
0:43:26 > 0:43:30if I left it another 10 years to try and do it on the 50th anniversary.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34And, my goodness me, I was right because when we did it in 1968,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37there were three sets of water troughs left
0:43:37 > 0:43:38between London and Edinburgh.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42Water troughs along sections of the track
0:43:42 > 0:43:45were used to scoop up supplies on the move,
0:43:45 > 0:43:47but they were fast being dismantled.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53Well, this is a highly dodgy situation that I hoped
0:43:53 > 0:43:56we were not going to find ourselves in that we are now in.
0:43:56 > 0:44:01We've had two rather poor pick-ups of water and only one good one out of three
0:44:01 > 0:44:05and it's really a question now as to whether to take the water
0:44:05 > 0:44:07we have got laid on in reserve at Berwick on Tweed,
0:44:07 > 0:44:12or whether to take a calculated risk, I suppose is the term,
0:44:12 > 0:44:16and carry on beyond the point of no return and try and make Edinburgh.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19You are aware, presumably, that there are 1,800 pints of beer on board?
0:44:19 > 0:44:21That would be very helpful!
0:44:22 > 0:44:26We might be very glad of that! I'm glad you mentioned that!
0:44:26 > 0:44:29I think she'd run very well on light ale!
0:44:30 > 0:44:33In the event, they did not need the beer.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36Alan Pegler's calculated risk paid off
0:44:36 > 0:44:39and Flying Scotsman pulled into Edinburgh in under eight hours.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49When the programme was transmitted in August 1968,
0:44:49 > 0:44:52the day the very last steam train ran on the network,
0:44:52 > 0:44:56millions watched. The nation was spellbound.
0:44:59 > 0:45:041968 proved to be a crucial year in the story of Flying Scotsman.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08Alan Pegler had saved the engine and, with the media in his wake,
0:45:08 > 0:45:11he'd had a ball taking it around the country.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13As long as he had been able to run on the network,
0:45:13 > 0:45:17he had been able to make money from rail tours.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21But the agreement with British Rail was about to end.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26They wanted all steam off the network, including Flying Scotsman.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30He reasoned that if Flying Scotsman could not make money in Britain,
0:45:30 > 0:45:33he'd take it somewhere it could.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35He took it to America.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55There'd been a long tradition of British Railways
0:45:55 > 0:46:00sending their flagship locomotives over to the States for exhibitions.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04Pegler, ever this swashbuckling, buccaneering sort of character,
0:46:04 > 0:46:06wanted Flying Scotsman to be part of that tradition.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17He planned a three-month tour around the east coast states,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20and won official support.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24The Government and British exporters were more than happy to have
0:46:24 > 0:46:28this iconic locomotive showcase the best of British industry.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32There were some big names on this tour -
0:46:32 > 0:46:37Lloyds Bank, BP, Pretty Polly Tights, the Royal Shakespeare Company.
0:46:37 > 0:46:38The brewer Watneys converted
0:46:38 > 0:46:43an old observation car into a mobile tavern called the Fireman's Rest.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45It was almost like a travelling circus,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49complete with a bevy of mini-skirted, glamorous girls
0:46:49 > 0:46:51and Alan Pegler acting as ring master.
0:46:59 > 0:47:04I went off in 1969, 25 years old,
0:47:04 > 0:47:07world's my oyster, had a fantastic time.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11People didn't travel as much as they do today
0:47:11 > 0:47:18so to go on a locomotive in America and get paid for it...wonderful!
0:47:29 > 0:47:32We started off in Boston, Hartford, went right down to Washington.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38Every town we went into, the Flying Scotsman would come in going,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41toot-toot, blowing steam everywhere.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44We had a knight in his armour and he would come out
0:47:44 > 0:47:47and walk along the track and we'd march behind him,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50all in our kilts and our red jumpers and our tam o'shanters.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53It was just like a carnival coming to town.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04And then, of course, everybody wanted to meet us,
0:48:04 > 0:48:05you were signing autographs
0:48:05 > 0:48:08and then we'd set up our stall on the side of the platform
0:48:08 > 0:48:11and people would come and buy memorabilia.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15The people that came to meet the train!
0:48:15 > 0:48:18There'd be hundreds of people! Hundreds!
0:48:18 > 0:48:21You'd never believe how many people came to see this locomotive.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29At the end of the tour,
0:48:29 > 0:48:34everyone flew home, leaving Flying Scotsman itself in storage.
0:48:35 > 0:48:40The first tour of 1969-1970 had proved extraordinarily successful.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42The businesses had all taken big orders
0:48:42 > 0:48:45and, despite its high costs, the tour itself had made a small profit.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48At that point, Pegler could have brought Flying Scotsman home
0:48:48 > 0:48:51and all would have been good.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53But he didn't.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56He had been completely seduced by the charms of his engine
0:48:56 > 0:48:59and he decided to run another tour in 1972.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02This time, though, without any official backing.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06The new government in Britain
0:49:06 > 0:49:08didn't want the old-fashioned technology of steam
0:49:08 > 0:49:11to promote a modern 1970s economy.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14Nevertheless he carried on.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17He decided to take the locomotive to the west coast.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19But the money was running out.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22We could only run as an exhibition train.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25We weren't allowed to carry passengers due to American law.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27The other problem was of my own making -
0:49:27 > 0:49:29I'd got hooked on driving the engine.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32I'd got it to America, they'd said you drive it,
0:49:32 > 0:49:34and I was having a ball driving it and I thought,
0:49:34 > 0:49:36"What the hell if the money's going down the drain,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39"never get a chance like this again." And I just pressed on.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43His daughter Penny joined him.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47She witnessed first hand the drain on her father's finances.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52I went all the way round the Great Lakes,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56all the way across North America, and down to San Francisco.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00But by then, money was starting to run out,
0:50:00 > 0:50:03so we were not in the grand hotels,
0:50:03 > 0:50:08we were in slightly less expensive hotels
0:50:08 > 0:50:11and, at the end, we were in sleeping bags crossing the Rockies.
0:50:14 > 0:50:19With hindsight, I would say one was barmy to have gone to America at all at that time.
0:50:19 > 0:50:24It was just the time when they, the Americans, were getting up to their necks with Vietnam,
0:50:24 > 0:50:27the Penn Central Railway was going bankrupt,
0:50:27 > 0:50:31on whose tracks we were running for the first 600-700 miles,
0:50:31 > 0:50:35and all those things contributed to the fact that life got jolly difficult.
0:50:47 > 0:50:52For Alan Pegler and his family, the consequences were devastating.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56In late 1972, he was forced to file for bankruptcy.
0:51:06 > 0:51:11The bankruptcy was a very difficult time for us both, of course.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16Everything was sealed and then auctioned.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Everything went, we had nothing.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25My father and I never, ever, ever had cross words about it.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29That was what he'd done, he'd lived his passion,
0:51:29 > 0:51:33it was wonderful. I'd had a fantastic time.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35We had wonderful, wonderful memories.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38He'd saved this incredible engine.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41And that was the story.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52Alan Pegler knew how very expensive Flying Scotsman was to maintain.
0:51:53 > 0:51:55Over the next 30 years,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59two more millionaire owners would discover the same painful lesson.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03There was serious concern amongst people in Britain
0:52:03 > 0:52:06that Flying Scotsman might never return,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09but would be seized by Alan Pegler's creditors.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16It was saved by another wealthy railway enthusiast, William McAlpine.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22He acted quickly.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25Helped by the US tour manager George Hinchcliffe,
0:52:25 > 0:52:27McAlpine paid off the creditors
0:52:27 > 0:52:31and, by February 1973, he'd got it back to Liverpool.
0:52:34 > 0:52:35My thinking was that
0:52:35 > 0:52:37if so many people loved her,
0:52:37 > 0:52:41the thing must be able to earn enough money to keep itself.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45He ran it for more than 20 years
0:52:45 > 0:52:48but was acutely aware of the cost of its overhauls.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57One of the big issues with every steam locomotive, big or small,
0:52:57 > 0:53:01is that you're dealing with old machines and with, effectively, handmade machines.
0:53:01 > 0:53:03So, until you take the boiler off,
0:53:03 > 0:53:06until you strip everything down to its components,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08you simply can't tell what condition they're in
0:53:08 > 0:53:10and, with the boiler in particular, if there is a problem,
0:53:10 > 0:53:14putting it right is a ferociously expensive business.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23When she is bounding along, she really looks like a living thing.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28Poetry in motion. She brought responsibilities.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31There was always something to spend money on.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34I overhauled her at least twice.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38And when you think you've done it,
0:53:38 > 0:53:41suddenly, she needs this and she needs that.
0:53:44 > 0:53:49And what she needed in 1996 was another major overhaul.
0:53:49 > 0:53:51Sir William decided he'd had enough
0:53:51 > 0:53:54and Flying Scotsman was on the market once more.
0:53:58 > 0:54:00It was bought by another millionaire,
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Dr Tony Marchington, for £1.45 million.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07Then the bills for its restoration started to roll in.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13It got a lot darker before it started to get light.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16Certainly when this restoration cost
0:54:16 > 0:54:21started to head to half a million, then beyond half a million, 600,000,
0:54:21 > 0:54:23you thought to yourself, "Where is this going to end?"
0:54:23 > 0:54:27But there's no way out but up.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30You can't decide in the middle of restoring a steam locomotive,
0:54:30 > 0:54:32"I've had enough of this."
0:54:32 > 0:54:37What you've actually got is worth a lot less than when you started!
0:54:37 > 0:54:40Not until you get it back in one piece again
0:54:40 > 0:54:43do you actually see the capital value materialise again.
0:54:50 > 0:54:52The overhaul took four years
0:54:52 > 0:54:54and cost three-quarters of a million pounds.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00It made money for four years
0:55:00 > 0:55:05until Flying Scotsman Enterprises went into receivership in 2003.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Tony Marchington became the third millionaire
0:55:09 > 0:55:13to have run into financial trouble while owning Flying Scotsman.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19The locomotive was put up for sale once more.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26This time, the National Railway Museum stepped in.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32At that moment they're going to sell it,
0:55:32 > 0:55:38the National Railway Museum decides, actually, we should buy it.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42The reason we should buy it is everyone thinks we own it anyway.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46People have been coming to the museum and one of the questions they ask is,
0:55:46 > 0:55:48"Where's Flying Scotsman?"
0:55:48 > 0:55:53They think the Railway Museum must own it because it's the most famous locomotive in the world.
0:55:56 > 0:56:01In April 2004, after a short and frantic fundraising campaign,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04the museum did manage to buy it.
0:56:06 > 0:56:11Flying Scotsman, steam sweetheart of the nation, finally belonged to it.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16It's wonderful to see the Flying Scotsman finally back
0:56:16 > 0:56:18where it should be. And in Britain, thankfully.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24My father was one of the original drivers and I think it's marvellous
0:56:24 > 0:56:27for everyone that this engine has come to York
0:56:27 > 0:56:29because that's where she belongs.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33But that isn't the end of the story.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38The Flying Scotsman celebrates its 90th birthday in February 2013
0:56:38 > 0:56:40in the National Railway Museum workshop.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45Just like its previous owners, the museum has discovered
0:56:45 > 0:56:48that maintaining an ageing steam locomotive
0:56:48 > 0:56:53is a constant and expensive battle against wear and tear.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55Perhaps Flying Scotsman is expensive to keep
0:56:55 > 0:56:59and it will be expensive to keep for the future.
0:56:59 > 0:57:00Is it worth it?
0:57:00 > 0:57:01Of course it's worth it!
0:57:04 > 0:57:08Flying Scotsman's a glorious piece of technological development,
0:57:08 > 0:57:10it's a machine with a soul and a heart
0:57:10 > 0:57:13and it's played a critical and key and glamorous role
0:57:13 > 0:57:17in 20th-century engineering history and 20th-century society.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24In her appearance, in her spectacle, in her sound,
0:57:24 > 0:57:30Flying Scotsman epitomises the gloss and the glamour and the sprit of the steam age like nothing else.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33There is nothing that matches it and, to top it all,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36you have this wonderful name which, in two words,
0:57:36 > 0:57:41epitomises the steam age in a way that nothing else ever has.
0:57:44 > 0:57:46Britain invented steam locomotion
0:57:46 > 0:57:49and it still strikes a chord with our nation.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56Steam preservation has helped us reconnect with a shared history,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59one that once shaped all our lives
0:57:59 > 0:58:01but a world we thought we had lost.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06And the image we still associate most with that world?
0:58:07 > 0:58:08The Flying Scotsman.
0:58:11 > 0:58:13That's why, on its 90th birthday,
0:58:13 > 0:58:16it remains the nation's favourite steam engine.
0:58:25 > 0:58:29# I get blue when I hear the wooh of a choo choo
0:58:29 > 0:58:33# I want you to go too with me on the choo choo
0:58:33 > 0:58:37# Forget cares and let go of your troubles and blues
0:58:37 > 0:58:41# Let's be gay on our way Let's get on the choo choo... #
0:58:50 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd