AGE OF STEAM rail enthusiasts have been advised to check online and with social media to see if the Flying Scotsman can run on the Ribblehead Viaduct as planned tomorrow, Saturday. A landslide on the track at Appleby has closed part of the line, and train operators are deciding how best to run scheduled services, with the possibility of replacement buses on part of the route. The line closure has put in doubt whether the world-famous steam train will be able to run on the track.
Th train was scheduled to haul the steam leg of heritage rail operator The Railway Touring Company’s Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express.
If the run goes ahead, the Flying Scotsman should cross the Ribblehead Viaduct at 4.10pm, go past Settle at 4.30pm and then stand in Hellifield from around 4.45pm to 5pm.
For Flying Scotsman, the first locomotive to reach 100mph in 1934, tomorrow is the latest stage of its return to the railways following a decade long, £4.2m restoration project by the National Railway Museum.
Seats on board the Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express, which will set out from London Euston early in the morning by diesel power to join Flying Scotsman at Carnforth, are sold out.
Jim Lowe, head of operations at the National Railway Museum, said: “Along with all our generous supporters for this complex project to bring a 1920s-built icon back to life, we have all been looking forward to the day when Flying Scotsman is once again running on Britain’s tracks.
"We are thrilled this day has finally come to pass - the mainline test run is another significant step towards getting the locomotive ready for its East Coast Mainline Inaugural Run and triumphant return to the National Railway Museum.
Alex Hynes, managing director for Northern Rail, the operator which manages Appleby station where the loco is due to take on water on the return and Blackburn station where it is due to stop for passengers to alight, added: “Flying Scotsman is one of the railway’s biggest and best known icons. It’s exciting to think it will be operating across our network and being seen and experienced by hundreds of fans and enthusiasts.”
Flying Scotsman is scheduled to haul a number of The Railway Touring Company’s steam day tours in 2016, including ‘The Hadrian’ from Leicester over the Settle and Carlisle Line on Saturday July 2.
The company's managing director, Nigel Dobbing, is delighted to have Flying Scotsman back in action.
 “Flying Scotsman is the sole survivor of Sir Nigel Gresley’s A3 class of locomotives and famous the world over so we are very excited that our ‘Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express’ day tour was chosen for the mainline test,” he said.