The Occasional Express

Welcome to the On This Day series, where The Occasional Express discusses train related anniversaries. Today, we discuss the anniversary of Flying Scotsman's 100 mph run. Flying Scotsman in Preservation in 1982. Photo By David Ingham - originally posted to Flickr as 03035, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3883924 Flying Scotsman needs no introduction. In case you are not familiar, a quick review. Flying Scotsman was the first locomotive built for the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) according to the flyingscotsman.org. Originally numbered 1472, she left her "birthplace," Doncaster Works, on February 24, 1923. Flying Scotsman was named after the train that ran since 1862, and renumbered to 4472 (her most famous number) in 1924, then was sent to the British Exhibition. From here, the engine would become the LNER's Flagship. In 1928, Flying Scotsman was given a tender with a corridor in it, allowing for nonstop runs from Lon...

By Patrick Webb Welcome to Branch Line News, your occasional summarized news source on all train topics. In today’s Branch Line News we go smaller and look at recent model train news and a fundraiser for a British Heritage Railway following a tragic washout. Rapido Trains Announces New Alco PA Rapido Trains, a Canadian based model train company who do models in HO, OO and N scale (referring to the size of the models, HO for reference is 1:87 to real life, while N scale is 1:148-1:160)  recently announced a new HO scale PA model. The basis, the PA’s were built by the American Locomotive Company (Alco) as competition for EMD's popular E series of diesel locomotives. According to American-Rails.com, the first Alco PA was built in 1946 for passenger trains. The Alco PA's are held to be one of the most beautiful American diesel locomotive (held in as high regard as the Class 43's, which The Occasional Express discussed in our last article) and were even given the rank ...