'Scotsman' Flies Home: 60103 on 'The Flying Scotsman Centenary Weekender' - 04/07/2023

Ask anybody in the world what the most famous steam locomotive of all time is, and chances are they'll say 'Flying Scotsman'. A paragon of rail travel; the iconic engine is celebrating its centenary throughout 2023, with a wide range of mainline trips and heritage railway visits lined up. She's even hauled the royal train, conveying the newly-coronated King Charles III and the Queen Consort to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on Monday 19th June.
Taking full advantage of this celebration, the Railway Touring Company organised 'The Flying Scotsman Centenary Weekender' to run across five consecutive days. Leaving Kings Cross on Friday 30th June, the first leg of the journey would see the A3 travel as far as York, before continuing north to Edinburgh the next day. Two days of Scottish exploration would follow, before drawing to a close on Tuesday 4th July, when the train would return south with the Gresley 'Pacific' coming off at York.
I chose to see the tour at Northallerton, where a handful of photographers had gathered to watch the locomotive pass. Unfortunately, a bridge strike on the northern section of the East Coast Main Line had begun to cause delays, meaning that the tour was running almost forty minutes down by the time she left Darlington. Furthermore, a delayed Grand Central service was obscuring most of the view from Platform Two, meaning I had to squeeze into a small gap of bystanders to get a shot. Here, we see 'Flying Scotsman' (still sporting her white cab roof from her royal duties) storming through the station somewhere in the high seventies.
I hope you all enjoy the video. Due to several factors, it is far from my best shot of the locomotive but I felt it worthy of posting as it captures a unique event in the engine's history. Thanks to the teams at Riley and Son, the National Railway Museum and the Railway Touring Company for pulling it all together. Feel free to comment and subscribe!