FLYING Scotsman is a 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive that was completed in February 1923 at Doncaster Works as the third of 51 ‘A1’ locomotives ordered by the Great Northern Railway prior to the ‘Big Four’ Grouping of January that year. As such, it first carried the identity No. 1472, but was renumbered by the GNR’s successor company the LNER in February 1924 as No. 4472 and given its famous name after the eponymous titled train – which has been a source of confusion ever since!
The RM June 1924
At the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley, there is the most striking comparison in dimensions, capabilities, construction and finish afforded by the juxtaposition of George Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1, which was used for the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, and one of Mr H N Gresley’s latest Pacific locomotives No. 4472 Flying Scotsman.
The loco was renumbered and named for display at exhibition, which also had the first member of the Great Western Railway’s ‘Castle’ Class No. 4073 on show. No. 4472 returned to Wembley again in 1925, but this time the GWR sent No. 4079.
The RM May 1928
Two of Mr Gresley’s Pacific engines Nos. 4472 and 4476 have been fitted with new corridor tenders for inaugurating the London-Edinburgh nonstop runs on May 1.
The driver and fireman in charge on leaving London will be relieved as the train passes Tollerton, roughly halfway on the journey, the off-duty crew riding in the foremost third-class compartment in the train.
No. 4472 became one of five ‘A1s’ selected for the service, and completed the inaugural journey in 8 hours and 3 minutes. The loco ran with its corridor tender until October 1936, after which it reverted to
