One of the many historical trains you will find at AMRE
The Flying Scotsman is perhaps the most famous locomotive in the world. It is also the name of the old L.N.E.R. route from London to Edinburgh, but almost everyone recognizes the name as being exclusive to Number 4472, a Pacific Class 4-6-0. It was built for the newly formed L.N.E.R. (London North East Railway) in 1923. It was given the running number of 4472, a number that every British school boy would know. It has six coupled driving wheels with a diameter of 6 ft. 8 ins. Its huge boiler originally worked at 180 lbs. per square inch but was increased to 220 when an improved boiler was fitted in the late 1940s. The locomotive alone weighs 92 tons, but combined with it's tender, that carries 5000 gallons of water and 8 tons of coal, it came to 146 tons. The average weight of a fully loaded train was around 500 tons, and it comprised, usually four carriages until half way through the journey when another two were added for the remainder of the trip to Edinburgh. It was in this configuration that it became the first authenticated steam powered locomotive to run at 100 MPH.
A unique feature of these locomotives, of which some seventy were built, 'The Flying Scotsman' being the sole survivor, is an 18 inch wide, 5 ft. high "corridor" through the tender, to enable a crew change half way through the eight hour trip. Otherwise, just one driver would have to be on constant alert for the 200 plus signal boxes he would pass, and the fireman would have to single handedly shovel some 6 - 8 tons of coal, too tall an order for anyone to do safely.
Here are the highlights of this locomotive, which was still
setting records in 1989!