Flying Scotsman flies through Shropshire
There were cries of delight as the Flying Scotsman rounded the corner and slowly pulled into Craven Arms railway station.
But as the most iconic locomotive of them all blew steam around the rail bridge, it became clear it was not stopping as many had hoped.
True to its name the train flew through Shropshire yesterday, and though details of its visit were kept under wraps, people turned out at stations and on railway bridges the length of the line.
A timetable for the journey from Crewe to Paddington had been leaked, stating there was a half-hour stop in Craven Arms. But those hoping for some quality time with the historic machine were disappointed – as the stop, for re-watering, was up the line from the station.
Still the crowds got a thrill from it's passing. For Paul Renshaw, 84, the sight reminded him of his childhood. The retired development manager from Ludlow, a life-long trainspotter, frequently travelled on trains pulled by the Flying Scotsman when he was a school boy at New College, Oxford, from 1942 to 1946.
The service was then used to transport troops between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Kings Cross in London during World War Two, and Paul would catch a lift back home to Sunderland.
"Back then the station signs would be blacked out and soldiers would sit either side of the carriage smoking," he said. "But a few civilians used to sit on it too."
Ron Miles, 87, from Jackfield had to wait a bit longer for his first ride on the Scotsman – but he got to go up front. "I drove it and fired it about 21 years ago when it was at Llangollen," he said.
Others took a break from work.
Georgie Ellis, a self-employed marketer from Lydbury North, near Bishop's Castle, said: "A friend of mine rang and told me. She had to go to work but I've left the website I was working on and come down."
She joined friends Julia Brereton, an estate manager from Clunton, who said her great, great grandfather was part of the engineering team that built the line in the 19th century, and Liz Colebrook, a bike builder from Bishop's Castle.
Some didn't have much of a journey at all. Full-time mother Diane Gill, 34, strolled across the road from Station Crescent with children Hunter, two, Xavier, 6, and Anya 11, after picking them up from Stokesay Primary School.
