The world’s most famous steam engine Flying Scotsman will tour Fife again this May

The two Forth Circle tours, which will see the carriages hauled by Flying Scotsman, are taking place on Sunday, May 19, and will run from Linlithgow (morning train) and Dalmeny in South Queensferry and Inverkeithing (afternoon train) via the Forth Bridge and round the Fife Circle via Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes, then through Dunfermline, Culross, Alloa and Stirling.

While the previous trips were organised by Steam Dreams, these tours will be organised by Bo’ness-based SRPS Railtours.

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Instead, this year Steam Dreams is running a longer four day tour to Inverness featuring Flying Scotsman and its sister locomotive Mayflower. They will be double-heading on the first day from Edinburgh to Inverness, via the Forth Bridge and the Highland Main Line from May 10.

Roger Haynes, commercial director of Bo’ness-based SRPS Railtours, which is organising the trips, said: “We are delighted that in May, Flying Scotsman will haul our Forth Circle steam specials which cross the iconic Forth Bridge and feature the Fife coast and Stirling Castle along this scenic route around central Scotland.”

Jim Lowe, head of operations at the National Railway Museum, which announced the trips this week, said: “I am pleased to announce Flying Scotsman’s touring schedule for 2019 which will once again give the public the opportunity to see this magnificent example of British engineering.

“The schedule will give people a truly memorable experience with a mix of exciting main line tours that will travel across the UK, as well as visits to preserved heritage railway lines.

“As ever, I would like to remind people wishing to see Flying Scotsman, to do so in safety and to ensure they do not trespass on the railway line.”

Flying Scotsman, which is the oldest working locomotive still operating, was restored at a cost of more than £4 million by the museum in 2016 and has visited Scotland three times since for tours of the Borders Railway and Fife Circle.

Some 50,000 people turned out to see the locomotive in 2016 on its first trip north of the Border since 2000.

Bookings for the Forth Circle tours will be open in early March, but details of the current operating schedule are now live on the Flying Scotsman website: www.flyingscotsman.org.uk.