The Flying Scottsman Arrives at Swindon Arts Centre

‘My Year with Flying Scotsman’ Quote from David Parker the film maker. ‘It was an amazing privilege, one of the highlights of my film making career. To see Flying Scotsman as just a rusting shell and then have the chance to ride in the cab, it was mind blowing, but a real roller coaster of a year, with plenty of downs as well as ups’

An illustrated talk by David Parker, director of two network television programmes that tell the story of ‘the world’s most famous steam engine’.

Is there a finer sight than the grace and power of a huge steam engine on the move?

Is there a more iconic steam engine than Flying Scotsman?

You can judge for yourself an an evening with the director of two films about the ‘world’s most famous steam locomotive’.

Award winning documentary film maker, David Parker, was lucky enough to spend a year following the rebuilding of Flying Scotsman from its stripped down frame to its first time back on the track. The film he made for ITV charts the struggles of the team of engineers hired to put the fire back into the Scotsman after it had suffered a series of near fatal mishaps during the last five years. The film follows the men (and women) who brought the beast back to life and had her running once more, in the words of the works foreman, Colin Green, ‘like a sewing machine’.

And as the film illustrates, it was no simple task. Every time the Colin Green’s team peeled away some of the rust and decay they found, more rust and decay, some so bad that they even had to cut off the front end of the locomotive and rebuild from scratch. It was a year of blood, sweat and toil.

While the film follows that year long struggle, Parker’s film also charts the longer history of the locomotive, a history full of romance, and danger.

In its heyday in the 20s and 30s Flying Scotsman was a world beater; it held world speed and endurance records and even starred in its own feature film. And it was sold to the public though a brilliant advertising

and marketing team, way ahead of its time. Yet, as technology moved on, this wonder machine was threatened with the scrap heap and was saved no less than three occasions, by three millionaires, an extraordinary series of close shaves.

During the evening David Parker will talk about how he made the film (and one for the BBC too). He’ll show clips from both, alongside fabulous film archive of the Scotsman in action, to illustrate the ways he was able to persuade men under intense pressure and working against the tightest of deadlines to take part. He will talk about how he persuaded Robson Green, who had a very personal relationship to Flying Scotsman, to present the programme and he will share some of his own joys and nightmares and frustrations he went through in filming the unpredictable reconstruction with no guarantee it would work. The evening will end with a screening of the whole 50 minute film.

And he’ll show rare film of Crewe Works in the 1930s, black and white film of men building a ‘pacific’ steam locomotive similar to Flying Scotsman. The film shows in dramatic fashion the fire, heat, and power that went into forging one of these huge machines.