THE big event of the weekend has to be the arrival in Shildon of what is arguably the world’s most famous steam locomotive: Flying Scotsman.

Fresh from its £4.2m restoration, the engine will be drawing the crowds to the Locomotion museum, perhaps even on the scale of the streamlined A4s – the Mallard and her sister engines – which attracted more than 100,000 people a couple of years ago.

The Scotsman was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and built in Doncaster in 1923. In its eye-catching apple-green livery, it quickly became the darling of the age, a symbol of the roaring Twenties.

The engine was the first to haul a non-stop train between London and Edinburgh in 1928 and then, on November 30, 1934, became the first steam loco to be officially recorded at 100mph.

Post-war, Scotsman became a bit of a relic of a bygone age, particularly after the death of steam in the 1960s. The engine was saved from the scraphead by a succession of private owners because of its iconic place in rail history and now, following its restoration by the National Rail Museum at York, is at Shildon for a week from Saturday.