The locomotive was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and was built at the Doncaster Railway Works in 1923. It was the first locomotive to reach the speed of 100 mph.
It is a London and North Eastern Railway (LNER )Gresley Class A3 "Super Pacific" steam locomotive with a 220 psi boiler, 19-inch cylinders, increased superheat, long-travel valves, improved lubrication and modified weight distribution.
Locomotive 4472 was one of five Gresley Pacific-class locomotives selected to run the non-stop Flying Scotsman train service.
The Flying Scotsman service still includes trains leaving London Kings Cross and Edinburgh Waverley Stations simultaneously at 10 a.m. each morning. The journey time, however, is half as long as locomotive 4472's eight-hour journey.
The Flying Scotsman is 70 feet long, 13 feet high and 9 feet 2 inches in width. It weighs 96.25 tons.
It has a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement. This is a locomotive classification system based on the number and arrangement of the axles or wheels. The United Kingdom and U.S. system counts wheels. This describes a locomotive by counting the number of wheels from front to rear and counts the number of carrying wheels, followed by driving wheels, followed by the trailing wheels.
