On The Tracks Of The Flying Scotsman

The Flying Scotsman celebrated its centenary as a named express in 2024. Back in the 1920s its growing acclaim led to the same name being given to the Flying Scotsman engine. Both the express train and the locomotive are now world famous. So too is the railway it uses - the East Coast Main Line linking the capitals of England and Scotland. This book captures the history and character of the route from a broad perspective. Here is a rich mix of anecdotes and observations, including attractions and oddities either visible from the train or within easy reach of principle stations. Regularly travelling the tracks of the Flying Scotsman as a schoolboy, David Pendleton soon had 'a life-long love affair with rail travel'. It led to a 34-year career as a signalman, reflected in this celebration of one of the truly great railway journeys of the world. Gavin Morrison, one of Britain's most experienced railway photographers, has compiled more than 60 books and has gained the highest reputation for the quality of his work. In a superb array of images, he is able to portray trains using the East Coast main line from the days of steam haulage through to today's 'Azumas' completing the 400-mile journey in little over four hours. Collectively this book is a journey in both words and pictures that is highly informative and richly illustrated. It is to be enjoyed as a record of recent times as well as evoking memories of years long past!

About the Author :
David Pendleton had his first railway-related book, On the Tracks of the Thames-Clyde Express, published by Great Northern in 2023. He recently left the railway to open a gin distillery in the North Yorkshire seaside resort of Filey. In between signalling trains, he studied at Leeds Metropolitan University and De Montfort University, Leicester. At Leeds his Master's dissertation focussed on holiday making patterns on the Yorkshire coast. David became a Doctor of Philosophy at Leicester via a study of commercialised sporting leisure in Victorian Bradford. Photographer Gavin Morrison got his first camera way back in 1943 and within a few years his hobby became an obsession. He has now amassed some 200,000 images in one of the largest personal collections still in hands of the original photographer. Unlike many, he did not put his cameras away when the age of steam ended in 1968 and he continues to record the changing railway scene. A dedicated Yorkshireman, he lives near Mirfield and has always had a special regard for the Flying Scotsman express and the East Coast Main Line.