The Flying Scotsman is the world's most famous train service. Over 100 years since the iconic steam locomotive entered service, we trace its history and legacy.

What is the Flying Scotsman?

The Flying Scotsman has come to refer to many things; from the train service and locomotive itself to a nickname applied to Scottish sporting heroes including an aviation pioneer, several cyclists, and a Formula One driver.

The name was first associated with the Special Scotch Express train journey from London King’s Cross Station to Edinburgh. The service ran every day from 1852 and was the fastest day express service on the east coast mainline. Before long it became popularly – but unofficially – known as the Flying Scotsman.

It was the first service to run non-stop over 100 miles. For a long time it held the record as the world’s longest scheduled non-stop run from London to Newcastle, a distance of 268 ½ miles. During the period between the First and Second World Wars, the service became a byword for the luxury of rail travel. 

The Big Four

After the First World War the government grouped the surviving rail companies into four regions. LNER was born with this creation of the Big Four new railway companies.

Although divided geographically, these new railway companies were still in competition with each other due to overlapping territories and routes. LNER largely served the eastern side of the UK from London up to Scotland on the east coast mainline, but it was in competition with the London Midland and Scottish Railway which served the west coast route to Scotland. They in turn were competing with the other regions to encourage passengers to use their services. Each was keen to promote their own distinct style and region.

The iconic locomotive

The Flying Scotsman is one of the Pacific type (Class A1) express tender locomotives built in Doncaster from designs by Sir Nigel Gresley, LNER’s chief mechanical engineer. They were the most powerful steam locomotives used by the LNER railway on the fastest and heaviest express passenger trains between London and Edinburgh.

In 1924 it was selected to appear at the British Empire Exhibition in London. By that time the locomotive had been given the name Flying Scotsman after the express passenger service it served. It was one of twelve Pacific type locomotives in service on the east coast main line that year, with another forty due to be delivered.

The Flying Scotsman vs The Royal Scot 

National Museums Scotland has two stunning examples of railway art depicting two of the most famous locomotives from the golden age of steam. The first is the original artwork for LNER’s advertising campaign from the summer of 1932, Take me by the Flying Scotsman, by A R Thomson. The second is an enormous billboard poster for of the Royal Scot.

The Royal Scot locomotive was built in 1930. It had a different name and was only called the Royal Scot in time for it to tour the USA in 1933. The Royal Scot was built for the London Midland and Scottish Railway to compete against the LNER Flying Scotsman. The Royal Scot ran on the West Coast Main Line, while the Flying Scotsman ran on the East Coast Main Line. 

Both the Royal Scot and Flying Scotsman represented the height of steam railway engineering at that time. They were the flagship locomotives for their railway companies. As such they were the stars of their advertising campaigns, which took the form of large posters.

The development of railway art

Railway art as a serious field of commercial art and design took off in the 1920s and reached its pinnacle in the 1930s. Before the First World War railway posters were used to cram as much information about a railway service and its destination as possible. Posters were text heavy, and the results were described by artist Norman Wilkinson as an "uninspired jumble…a hotch-potch which was quite unintelligible at a distance".

LNER took the progressive step of appointing its first Advertising Manager in 1923. Just a month after the company was formed they introduced a poster advertising campaign. Soon all the railway companies were employing the biggest contemporary artists to create eye-catching new works each year. Many are still reproduced and popular today.

Art Deco railway art

Typically, railway poster art focused on images of the destination. Sunny resorts and beaches, golf courses, quaint towns and rural scenes, were the focus of the posters. The railway companies, however, were always keeping an eye on their competitors. They were looking to create impact with their designs, which the new Art Deco style achieved.

The development of the Art Deco style in the 1920s flourished in the 1930s. It saw art and design embrace industry for the first time in an assertively modern style. Art Deco was obsessed with travel, speed, and new forms of transport in a decade that saw land, air, and water speed records being broken year on year. Artists sought to convey luxury, movement, and speed in a futuristic, abstract new style.

In 1932 LNER approached the artist A R Thomson to create new works focusing on the scale of the black shiny Flying Scotsman locomotive. They wanted to put across the impression of speed conveyed in an iconic Art Deco style. It is in marked contrast to the usual railway poster art which traditionally showed pleasant images of the holiday destination rather than the experience of train travel itself. Perhaps for this reason, and in spite of its artistic merits, when the poster was displayed on station platforms it was not as popular with the public as the Southern Railway design.

The perceived lack of popularity, however, does not mean it was not a successful design. The railway advertising managers themselves recognised the value of being provocative. In 1929 the Public Relations and Advertising Officer for Southern Railways wrote;

In this regard the Take me by the Flying Scotsman poster is a classic of its time.

The Royal Scot 10-0AM Euston to Glasgow & Edinburgh poster was created by the artist P Irwin Brown for rival company LMS in 1931. It depicts the locomotive head-on, as though racing towards the viewer. The palette is limited to white, grey, and black, with vivid highlights in red and yellow. The block art deco lettering of the title combined with the colours make for bold, eye-catching graphic design. It is an image of power and modernity through industry and engineering.

Flying Scotsman today

The full-size locomotive is in the collections of the Science Museum Group. A scale model made by toy manufacturer Hornby of the Flying Scotsman locomotives is in our collection.

Since the 1930s there have been several other claims to the title of the Flying Scotsman, predominantly associated with cycling. The Flying Scot series of bicycles were built in Glasgow from the late 1920s until 1982 by a firm founded in 1901 by David Rattray.  Although most 'Scots' bicycles were men's frames, there were also women's versions called The Queen of Scots.

Individuals have also been conferred with the title of 'the Flying Scotsman'. Notably cycle-racing pioneer Graeme Obree, and Sir Chris Hoy, the eleven times World Champion and six times Olympic champion cyclist.

Other sporting Flying Scots include Eric Liddell, who won the 400m gold medal at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. Formula-One racing car driver and team owner, Sir Jackie Stewart, and 1930s aviation pioneer Jim Mollison have also earned the nickname.