Not this time the chant usually reserved for expensive and under-performing
footballers, but recent mutterings about the pricey reassembling of Flying
Scotsman, now back on the tracks after 10 years out of action. What’s so
special about her anyway? She was the first steam locomotive in the world to
reach 100 miles an hour in 1934, making her an iconic record breaker and a champion
of British engineering at its best, when designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and built
for the London North Eastern Railway in 1923.
“You have to think of her as a stately home,” remarked a
supporter on the telly, on the occasion of her recent and belated return to
steam at the East Lancashire Railway. According to a recent poll, she is the
most famous steam engine in the world, even better known than Thomas the Tank
Engine. £4.2m looks like a snip when you start investigating other ways in
which large pots of cash can be thrown around on doing things up – £22m for the
recent refurbishment of Lincoln Castle, £36m for Windsor Castle after fire
damage and £50m for the Cutty Sark, after she, too, had succumbed to the
flames. The Flying Scotsman is the flagship of the railway preservation
movement and worth every penny that has been spent on her.
No comments:
Post a Comment