Flying Scotsman has steamed away on a tour of Britain to mark its 100th birthday.
The train engine set off on its first leg from the sheds at Doncaster Works to Waverley Station in Edinburgh.
On board was Poet Laurette Simon Armitage.
He read “The Making of the Flying Scotsman” to celebrate the events.
He describes how the Scotsman’s engine “coughed into life” and features “vast steel circumferences” and “rippling bodywork pouring with sweat”.
He spoke of “this incredible coming together of both mechanics and metaphysics”.
Mr Armitage said:
“There’s something very dreamlike about the whole contraption and the experience of standing next to it.
“There’s just something absolutely incredible when you’re up close and personal with it.”
He told BBC Radio 4 he wanted to celebrate the “analogue world”, when people had “an actual relationship with physical objects”.
He continued: “I think in the digital world it’s often a very detached and dispassionate experience.”
Flying Scotsman is “an emblem of when we could have pride” about the railways, he said.
Flying Scotsman was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, built in Doncaster, and came into service in 1928.
Six years later it was the UK’s first locomotive to reach 100 mph.
Flying Scotsman is a working exhibit at the National Railway Museum in York.
Judith McNicol, director of the museum, said:
“Edinburgh Waverley is a fitting location to mark the centenary.
“It was here that Flying Scotsman completed its record-breaking, non-stop journey between London and Edinburgh in 1928.
“Edinburgh is also the birthplace of Sir Nigel Gresley.”
The steam engine will spend the rest of 2023 travelling across the country to allow as many people as possible to see it in its 100th anniversary year.
