Flying Scotsman's 100th Birthday
This year marks the 100th birthday of Britain’s most famous steam locomotive built in 1923: the Flying Scotsman! Because of its significant history in British railways, this locomotive has appeared in the Thomas the Tank Engine franchise, depicted as the brother of Gordon the Big Engine. Flying Scotsman was first seen in the Railway Series book, Enterprising Engines (1968), by Reverend Wilbert Awdry. In a Thomas & Friends Series 3 TV episode, Tender Engines (1992), only his two shiny tenders were shown, but the model of the actual engine was never built for budgetary reasons. As a result, this was Flying Scotsman’s only appearance in the model series. He wasn’t shown again until the CGI series came out and was reintroduced in a 2016 full-length special. It would have been more splendid if the filmmakers had sufficient funding to build a full model of the Flying Scotsman and create a larger story role for that character instead of his cameo appearance.
