Flying Scotsman locomotive back on the tracks for 2016

For steam enthusiasts, 2016 promises to be the most exciting year for a decade as the most famous locomotive in the world returns to the railway.

Ian MacCabe thinks millions of fans will line the tracks to welcome Flying Scotsman back to the rail network following its £4.2 million (€5.7m), 10-year long refit.

Mr MacCabe is one of the founders and trustees of the Gresley Society — named after Nigel Gresley, the Flying Scotsman’s designer.

“There’ll be millions there trackside to watch it,” he said.

“When it was restored last time there were crowds of people at every single station and I think there’ll be twice as many this time.

Mr MacCabe said he first remembers seeing Flying Scotsman when he was about four-years-old.

Then, in 1962, when he was only 12 years old, he was so horrified that the British Railways Board had missed Flying Scotsman off its list of steam locomotives for preservation he joined the Gresley A3 Preservation Society, selling postcards at sixpence a time to school friends and putting up SOS (Save Our Scotsman) posters all over his town.

Now he thinks the enduring popularity of Flying Scotsman is down to Gresley.

“I think he got the design so right first time,” he said.

“It’s just such a beautiful, well-balanced machine.”

“It’s the best-looking locomotive there’s ever been. It’s no coincidence many of its class are named after racehorses,” Mr MacCabe said.

Flying Scotsman was built in Doncaster in 1923 and soon became the star locomotive of the British railway system.

It pulled the first train to break the 100mph barrier in 1934 and ending up synonymous with the cocktail bar image of the service it was named after.

The engine will return in the Brunswick Green colour of its British Railways days.

The National Railway Museum bought the locomotive for £2.3 million in 2004 and work began on it in 2006.