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The West Coast Main line is a 399 mile long high speed railway from London Euston to Glasgow. The route has a long history dating back to the 1830s. The route today is one of the busiest in the country and serves the West Midlands, North West, North Wales and Southern Scotland.

January 2016 saw the famous steam locomotive Flying Scotsman returned to the tracks for its first public appearances in steam for more than a decade.

The locomotive made its first test runs on 8th January 2016 following a £4.2m restoration project. One of the world’s most iconic railway locomotives, the Scotsman has been restored for York’s National Railway Museum (NRM) in a shed in Bury by specialist Bury-based engineering firm Riley & Son Ltd (Link Manchester Evening News photos of the restoration). The Scotsman made a number of runs under full steam between the East Lancashire Railway stations in Bury and Heywood ahead of two full weekend of events on the East Lancashire Railway Link (Scotsman in Steam).

The locomotive was in its wartime livery of black, rather than its famous green. After the test runs and Scotsman in Steam weekends, Flying Scotsman is scheduled to return to the Bury workshop where it was restored to be transformed by Blackburn-based firm Heritage Painting into its famous British Rail green livery ahead of a full mainline run between Manchester and Carlisle later in January and a “welcome home event” at the National Railway Museum in York in late February. The locomotive’s return to the NRM will then kick off the ‘Scotsman season’ during its birthday month - the engine was built at Doncaster and completed in February 1923.

Postscript: The Flying Scotsman returned to the East Lancashire Railway (wearing its Brunswick green livery) in October when it operated the Bury to Rawtenstall service for four days between Thursday 13th and Sunday 16th October.

Flying Scotsman 2016 Programme Link National Railway Museum