Book description
Think of the Golden Age of Steam and one train leaps to mind above
all others: the Flying Scotsman, Nigel Gresley's elegant masterpiece
of a locomotive, which broke the world speed record in 1934 and has
enthralled millions with her beauty and power. And, uniquely, her
postwar career has been even more varied and exciting than her early
triumphs. Now Andrew Roden tells the Scotsman's remarkable story, from
her construction and the glory days between the wars through the
decline of steam and her rollercoaster fortunes in the subsequent
years: nearly abandoned on a tour of the United States after the money
ran out, crossing the Australian interior, put up for sale yet again
when the company that owned her went bankrupt in 2003. A massive
public campaign saved her for the nation, and she is currently being
restored at the National Railway Museum, due to steam again in 2008.
Now, with the aid of numerous interviews with those involved with the
Scotsman over the years, Roden brings alive her story, and those of
all who have owned her and worked on her. Above all, he asks: why do
grown men risk their life savings to own her? Why do thousands of
people still line the trackside when she's due to race past? Just what
is the eternal appeal of the Flying Scotsman?
