Flying Scotsman Australian link

Regular readers may remember a story in January this year on AudlemOnline called 'Flying Scotsman Memories' written by AudlemOnline's editor.

Published just as the famous Flying Scotsman completed a ten-year refurbishment and started running again on excursions in front of massive crowds along the mainlines of Britain, Bob Cartwright described how in 1987 he had hired the Flying Scotsman and a full set of Brighton Belle carriages and ran five excursions for almost 2,000 passengers from London and other centres around the Cumberland Coast line.

In the article he described how had bought a quarter of a mile of Cumberland sausage as the on-board lunch – "Nine inches is enough for any man" he said when buying the sausage, a quip that raised a smile at Woodall's of Waberthwaite, makers of the best Cumberland sausage in the county, although the smile may have been about the size of order.

Eight months later, early this morning, an email arrived from Queensland, Australia from the man who was the driver on that first trip which was filmed and made into a fine video (remember that technology). He even recalled cooking Bob's nine inches of sausage in the fire of the Flying Scotsman, a treat that had a particular culinary impact as rarely do you get to eat such a fine sausage (continuous link, 100% best quality meat but for the small amount of spicing, no preservatives) cooked in such a dramatic way.

The sausage making even made up the opening sequences of the video, intercut with shots of the Flying Scotsman being fired up. It was much later in the film that these two ingredients came together, the latter cooking the former!

Dave, the engine driver, also described in the email how he came to move to Australia as a result of being part of the Flying Scotsman team.

It's a wonderfully small world when an article on a village website about an event almost thirty years ago can be read on the other side of the world.

The photo shown here is of a watercolour commemorating the trip in question which is Bob's office to this day. I you would like to read the original article, simply click here.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.