Interview - Bob Gwynne: Tribute to icon from heyday of rail travel

"Endless tarmac or clouds just don't provide you with the same inspiring view that you get from the window of a carriage," adds Gwynne, nailing firmly shut the argument in favour of the railways.

Gwynne is the author of the new book, The Flying Scotsman, The Train, The Locomotive, The Legend.

It is not hyperbole to describe the famous locomotive as legendary. Along with the Orient Express, it is one of those names that conjure up certain images of the romance of the railways.

Gwynne says: "When you think of rail travel, you don't imagine third class, you daydream about first-class travel and the golden age of steam.

"The Flying Scotsman has all of those things."

Gwynne is the exhibitions and creative content developer at York's National Railway Museum (NRM).

While preparing for an exhibition on the Scotsman in 2006, Gwynne, a lifelong railway enthusiast who first came across the Flying Scotsman as a young boy, amassed files and files of research.

"I had all this research done, so when Shire Books came to the museum last year, to ask if we wanted to collaborate on a book about the Flying Scotsman, it seemed like a great opportunity," says Gwynne.

The result of the collaboration is a recently published book which tells the story of the famous locomotive with highly evocative photographs of the engine.

"I wanted to provide a story of the Flying Scotsman that would serve as an introduction for people," says Gwynne.

"I could have written a book with lots of intricate details of measurements and that sort of thing, but that would have been an entirely different kind of book.

"The idea is that this is like a taste of the story that will, hopefully, whet people's appetite, and then they can go and do some more of their own research."

The train remains an iconic feat of engineering, and just its name invokes memories of the bygone era of steam on the nation's railways.

The Flying Scotsman is the Yorkshire-built locomotive that became the first steam engine to travel at more than 100 miles an hour, and has captured the imaginations, and a special place in the hearts, of rail enthusiasts across the globe.

The name the Flying Scotsman was a colloquialism people used to refer to the main-line engine.

Gwynne says: "Anything that moved quickly was given the name 'flying', and because it travelled from London to Edinburgh, it was given the name the Flying Scotsman."

The name actually turned out to be a brilliant piece of marketing.

The engine was displayed at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924, where it was officially given the name.

Built by the London North Eastern Railway, number 4472 Flying Scotsman (initially carrying the number 1472) was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and built at Doncaster works in 1923 at a cost of 7,944.

After the nationalisation of the rail network in 1948, Flying Scotsman continued to be in service until 1963, when she was bought by

Alan Pegler who restored her as closely as possible to her original LNER livery.

In 1973, following a financial crisis due to Alan's financial backers pulling out, Bill McAlpine purchased the locomotive and continued to run Flying Scotsman for many years.

In 2004, the National Railway Museum saved the iconic locomotive

from being sold abroad and since then the NRM workshop team has been hard at work carrying out a full overhaul of the locomotive in time for

it to return to the railway next year.

Until then, fans can revel in the history of the Flying Scotsman in Gwynne's book.

The Flying Scotsman, The Train, The Locomotive, the Legend, published by Shire Books. Available at the National Railway Museum.