Flying Scotsman is currently in the National Railway Museum’s workshop, part way through its ten year overhaul.
Currently the locomotive is completely dismantled, all welding is finished, and the locomotive is being measured with lasers which allows our engineers to check and remove distortions in the frames. Once any distortions are corrected, the gradual process of re-assembly will begin.
Although much of this work is happening in the workshop at York, various components have been sent to specialist engineers all over the UK. You can monitor progress from the viewing gallery above the workshops, but do not be surprised if at times there are only the frames and disassembled components to see.
The Flying Scotsman locomotive will be back in steam in 2011. Delays caused by a world shortage of copper for the firebox and unexpected cracks in the smokebox saddle, only discovered after the loco was totally dismantled, were amongst some of the obstacles eroding the original time scale. The frames were also out of true and this needed rectifying. Most of these elements a result of 80 years hard work in an unforgiving environment.
Notwithstanding any unforeseen circumstances, the locomotive will be pulling passenger trains in the 2011 season, so keep a watch on this website for more details closer to the time.