Tonight we have a blog post perfectly timed for Burns Night!  Following this month’s earlier blog post about the worlds most famous steam engine, it has been announced that the Flying Scotsman is to be returned into service numbered 60103 in British Railways brunswick green.

Andrew McLean, Head Curator at the National Railway Museum said:

“The loco has been changed so often over the past 90 years that it is now practically impossible to present it in a wholly historically accurate appearance. As well as the currently most well-known guises of the apple green 4472 and the BR green 60103, Flying Scotsman has also been numbered 1472, 103, and 502.

The loco will retain the double chimney and smoke deflectors it carried when the Museum acquired it in 2004. This being the case we have decided to present it in its final BR working appearance as far as is reasonably practicable.”

The full press release can be found here.

The locomotive has spent most of its preserved life numbered 4472 and finished in LNER apple green. Ironically for me, I’ve only ever seen it run in BR livery, as pictured here. Nevertheless I’m very much looking to seeing the legendary machine in action in 2015!