Penny Pegler, the daughter of Alan Pegler, who saved Flying Scotsman from behind cut up for scrap, is to visit the Swanage Railway from her home in Portugal, to ride behind the A3 steam locomotive.
Flying Scotsman is now owned by the National Railway Museum and has recently been out of service undergoing an overhaul but is set to visit the Swanage Railway for five days, from Saturday 22nd October. The loco is set to be on static display on Thursday 20th and Friday 21st October as well as Thursday 27th October until Sunday 6th November 2022.
Penny will ride in the Pullman-style observation carriage No. 14 on Saturday 22nd October after she flies in for the special occasion from Lisbon.
Tickets for a return trip behind Flying Scotsman cost £39 per person, but this increases to £55 per person for Premium class in a 1930s Maunsell heritage coach, and increases to £99 per person to ride in the Pullman No. 14, which includes breakfast pastries, champagne and canapes or afternoon tea.
To find out more about the visit of ‘Flying Scotsman' to the Isle of Purbeck, go on-line to swanagerailway.co.uk.
Penny Pegler said: “‘Flying Scotsman' was a very important part of my life as a child. I was nine years old when my father came up up to my room on a snowy night in January, 1963, to say goodnight and told me, with a twinkle in his eye, that he had just bought a beautiful steam locomotive to save her from being cut up in a scrapyard.
“Over the next few years, my father and I went on many wonderful trips all over the UK with ‘Scotty' as we called ‘Flying Scotsman'. For me, she was lovely and a special part of my family life. On many occasions, I followed my father through ‘Flying Scotsman's corridor tender and sat in the fireman's seat for a short while. There is nothing quite like it.
“It is going to be such fun to see ‘Devon Belle' Car No. 14 again. I spent so many happy and exciting days travelling with the team across the United States in this lovely observation carriage, watching the beautiful scenery go by and waving at the crowds of onlookers who came out in their thousands to see ‘Flying Scotsman' run by.
“My father had a passion for ‘Flying Scotsman', ever since he saw her as a four year old boy in London, and wanted to keep her running and not to be just a static exhibit.
“He wanted to keep her alive for future generations to enjoy and today she is everybody's locomotive with everyone having their own special memory of ‘Flying Scotsman'. My father would be so happy to see that and he must be looking down and smiling,” added Penny.
The Swanage Railway Company's volunteer chairman, Robert Patterson, said: “We're delighted that Penny Pegler will be very kindly visiting the Swanage Railway to ride behind the world's most famous steam locomotive that her father saved from the scrapyard.
“It will be a wonderful and very special occasion to see Penny riding in the carriage that she rode in, as an excited teenager, across the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s while being hauled by ‘Flying Scotsman' on a British exports publicity tour.
“We owe a great debt of appreciation and thanks to the late Alan Pegler for bravely preserving such a splendid stallion of speed which still has a very special place in the nation's heart,” added Robert who is a volunteer station porter on the Swanage Railway.
