Great Railway Journeys: The Flying Scotsman Route to Edinburgh is the fifth in Roger Mason’s Great Railway Journeys series. It is a captivating record of what can be seen from trains running from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh.
The forty-one chapters feature statues and monuments, including those paying tribute to the footballer Jackie Milburn and the Prime Minister 2nd Earl Grey. There are cathedrals, castles, viaducts and so much more. These are accompanied by fascinating stories, including how the heroine Grace Darling rowed through a storm to rescue shipwrecked sailors. Another tells of Scotland’s worst-ever fishing disaster in which 189 people lost their lives. There is an account of the 1895 railway races from London to Scotland, which cannot fail to enthral, and nor can the tale of how, in 1926, striking miners derailed the Flying Scotsman train.
In a follow-up to the highly successful London to Oxford and London to Cambridge, this is a must-read for anybody who knows and uses this route.