Flying Scotsman delights trainspotters as it passes through small Yorkshire station on way home

The locomotive was returning to the National Railway Museum in York after a spell as a visiting engine at the East Lancashire Railway, and was routed on a meandering path to avoid the busy East Coast Main Line interchanges at Leeds and Doncaster.

It took almost nine hours to travel from Bury to York, as it had to make various halts to take on water and allow faster trains to pass.

It switched between several lines, travelling through Hellifield, Skipton, Keighley and Shipley before diverting around Leeds to Castleford, from where it was able to use an old line between Wakefield and York that hasn’t had regular passenger traffic since 1970. The route is kept open for engineering trains, empty stock and special movements, and has a junction to the Leeds to Selby line and from there to the route between Doncaster and Hull.

It was during this final leg that it visited Hatfield and Stainforth Station, before doubling back towards York rather than continuing towards the east coast.

Large crowds lined the platforms as it passed through without stopping, whistling and hauling a single coach.

It will now go on display at the National Railway Museum for most of April as part of its centenary celebrations before setting off on a series of rail tours around the country. Doncaster will also receive an official visit by the locomotive, as it was built in the old Plant works in the town in 1923.