Railway Vehicle Information Sheet
2004-7103 - Flying Scotsman
Company
LNER
Type
Express passenger
Wheel Arrangement
4-6-2
Class
A3
Name
Flying Scotsman
Number(s)
1472 (1923)
4472 (Feb 1924)
502 (Jan 1946)
103 (May 1946)
60103 (Dec 1948)
Current Number
Builder
Doncaster Works
Works Number
1564
Order / Lot Number
E293
Cost (new)
£7,944
Date Authorised
Jan 1921
Date Built
Feb 1923
Rebuilds / Alterations
Corridor tender, April 1928 – Oct 1936, reb to A3 (220lb
boiler) Jan 1947, double chimney Jan 1959.
Date of Withdrawal
Jan 1963
Final Mileage
2,076,000 miles at 14.1.1963
Boiler Details
Class
94A
Number
27020
Date of Construction
1944
Builder
Doncaster Works
Tender Details
Class
5000 gallon corridor tender
Number
5325
Date of Construction
c.1936
Builder
Doncaster Works
Coal Capacity
9 tons
Water Capacity
5000 gallons
Locomotive Details
Length (with tender)
60’ 10½”
Maximum Height
13’ 1”
Maximum Width
Weight
Engine
Tender
Total
(Empty)
XXX tons
XXX tons
XXX tons
(In Working Order
96.25 tons
57.9 tons
154.15 tons
Shed Allocations / Where Based
[Shed / place]
[Date]
Doncaster
Feb 1923
London, King’s Cross
April 1928
Doncaster
Mar 1939
New England
(Peterborough)
Nov 1944
Doncaster
Dec 1944
Leicester
June 1950
Grantham
Nov 1953
King’s Cross
June 1954 – withdrawal (Jan 1963)
Museum History
[Shed / place]
[Date]
Notes
LNER No.4472 is truly iconic and probably the most famous individual steam
locomotive in the world, although of the engine which survives now only one slide
bar and one cab side sheet, both stamped 1472, remain from the original
locomotive outshopped (nameless) in early 1923.
This locomotive has been very extensively documented, most thoroughly as
regards its minutiae in The World’s Famous Steam Locomotive, compiled by D
Clifford, Finial Publishing, 1997 (NRM E8F/114).
Like certain other locomotives in the National Collection it is effectively impossible
to restore No.4472 validly to any particular period. The glory years were
undoubtedly 1928-1936 when it was equipped with a corridor tender (restored on
preservation in 1963), and it was still Class A1 (180lb pressure boiler without
smokebox square ‘blisters’). It was rebuilt to its present A3 status (220lb boiler
with square smokebox ‘blisters’) in January 1947, by which time it was LNER
No.103 with non-corridor tender.
No new A3 boilers were built after 1950 and so several A3s were rebuilt during the
1950s with A4 boilers. These did not include 4472, but when it was purchased a
1960-built A4 boiler was also acquired and later fitted during heavy repairs at
Vickers, Barrow, in 1977. Owing to slight but definite dimensional differences this
required new metal cladding to be made (regrettably the original was disposed of).
This boiler was still carried when 4472 passed into the National Collection in 2004.
In 2005 heavy repairs commenced involving replacement with the original A3
boiler, (and fabrication of new cladding).
Select bibliography:
Locomotives of the LNER, Part 2A, Railway Correspondence & Travel Society,
1973, NRM E8E/74/2A
Yeadon’s Register of LNER Locomotives, Vol.1, Irwell Press, 1990, NRM
E8E/352/1
The Worlds Most Famous Steam Locomotive, D Clifford, Finial Publishing, 1997,
NRME8F/114
Locomotives Illustrated Nos.25, Feb 1981 (A1/A3), and 106, Feb 1996 (A1 only)
Flying Scotsman – the extraordinary story of the world’s most famous train, by A
Roden, Aurum Press, 2007, NRM E8F/142
Flying Scotsman, - the legend lives on, by B Sharpe, Mortons Media Group, 2005,
NRM E8E/441