Steam Train Weathervane - 100 years of the Flying Scotsman

February 2023 marks the 100th birthday of the Flying Scotsman. This iconic steam train is world famous, in part due to its record setting top speed (reaching 100mph in 1934) and probably more significant in terms of actual usage its record for the longest non-stop run for a steam locomotive when it covered 422 miles in Australia.  When the Scotsman became key in the rivalry between the LMS West Coast service and the LNER East coast service up to Edinburgh it was not the phenomenal top speed that really mattered, but the ability to run non-stop.  This was achieved in part due to a corridor through the tender to allow the crew to change over without stopping.  The significance of this is not to be understated, when you consider that during the London-Edinburgh trip the fireman would need to shovel around 7 tons of coal!   The other key thing required for a non-stop run is a lot of water, which was often supplied by use of water troughs between the rails and scoops, especially in Britain.  The later Flying Scotsman tender could hold 5,000 gallons of water.

The photo above was taken by one of our customers, showing the LMS Jubilee weathervane we designed and produced for him. These locomotives were initially built from 1934 1936 and were designed for mainline passenger work, with 191 built in total.  They were a very common sight on the LMS lines right through until they were eventually decommissioned in the 1960’s.  Their length of service and indeed numbers does mean the Jubilee class does have a nostalgia factor for a lot of rail enthusiasts, coupled with the fact there are four preserved examples still running on heritage lines in the UK today.

As a great little personal touch, our customer asked if we would be able to add a signal box to their weathervane.  We thought about this a little as we did not want to affect the balance and function of the weathervane itself and eventually concluded the best option would be to have the signal box on the letter bars (North, South, East, West) beneath the sail, so the train appears to be flying past it. 

Our LMS Jubilee weathervane was featured on channel 4’s ‘Shed of the Year’ programme, as one of the entries into the competition was a railway enthusiast with a shed beautifully done up to house his collection of memorabilia, with our weathervane as the finishing touch to his roof.