Today, as you may have seen all over the news, the Flying Scotsman took a trip from London’s Kings Cross to York. It all started at 8:45am when I got a text from my Mumma saying she was waiting at the end of her road to see it whoosh by. Then as I got the children in the car, for the school trip, I asked “shall we go and see the special steam train?” and of course the reply was a big YES.
It went past Biggleswade around 8:45am, so I figured we would just about make it to the bridge to watch him pass through and still get to school on time. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. It was cold and the children were starting to get a little bored of standing around. By 9am, everyone was getting quite restless. We then found out from someone standing with us, that the reason it had not come past yet was because people had gone down the track, to get a better view, and so the train had to stop. Can you believe it? Are these people stupid? All the Virgin trains what normally zoom past at hundreds of miles per hour were casually passing us by. I am guessing not only did the Flying Scotsman grind to a halt, but all other trains at that time too.
But, despite the long wait it was so great to see the Flying Scotsman pass us at 9:10am. The children both said “WOW” as it went under the bridge that we stood on and sprayed a big fluffy cloud of steam into our faces. For a few seconds you couldn’t see anything except white fluffy clouds, it was fabulous. I cannot believe the Flying Scotsman is 93. This beaut of a steam train left Doncaster Works in February 1923, a month before my late Grandad was born. Grandad liked trains, I am sure he has a model train of the Flying Scotsman somewhere. It had its last trip in the 60’s and has since had a makeover costing over £4 million.
I am glad we got to see a little piece of history today. Thankfully the teachers at school were OK with it as they saw it as an educational trip too, also, I couldn’t of anticipated the late arrival due to silly spectators on the track. I wonder what is next on the agenda for the Flying Scotsman.
The Flying Scotsman image by ShutterStock.
I bet that was brilliant to see the flying scotsman going past. I can not believe that people went on the track, they are crazy and so lucky no-one was hurt xx