SHE may only be the support act to celebrity locomotive The Flying Scotsman but restorers are making every effort to get a legendary 1960s engine looking her best ahead of a highly anticipated exhibition.

Deltic locomotive King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) is being restored in the workshop at Locomotion: The National Railway Museum, in Shildon, County Durham.

Once completed, it will feature alongside Britain's oldest working steam loco Flying Scotsman at the museum’s York site during its Stunts, Speed and Style exhibition, which runs from March to May.

The work on KOYLI reached a milestone this week when the last vestige of its old blue livery was stripped away.

Removing the old livery enables the restoration team to repaint it the iconic BR Green that it was originally, complete with its original number D9002.

Two staff, supported by around 18 valued volunteers, are painstakingly patching up rusted bodywork and will apply nine coats of primer, paint and varnish to get a pristine finish.

To complete its transformation, the locomotive will be fitted with an original thistle headboard from the Flying Scotsman service.

Richard Pearson, workshop manager at Locomotion, said: “Like a car, its body had deteriorated and corroded and when it came to us in October and we examined it closely we decided it needed a fair bit of restoration.

“Up until now we’ve been performing crucial repairs to KOYLI’s steel body work, as well as undertaking extensive welding and sanding, but now in its full undercoat it’s really starting to look like the instantly recognisable Deltic that so many know and love.

“As it is going to be alongside Flying Scotsman it has to look good and we feel proud that we are going to get it ready in time and be part of such a big event.”

The exhibition will tell the story of the world-famous passenger train service between London and Edinburgh and will reunite four of the locomotives that hauled trains along the route.

Flying Scotsman, which has been brought back to life after a decade-long £4.2m transformation, and KOYLI, telling the story from the 1960s when steam made way for diesel, will be joined by Great Northern Railway locomotives Stirling Single and Ivatt Atlantic from the Victorian age when the service was nicknamed The Flying Scotchman because of its speed and convenience between the two capital cities.

Curator Anthony Coulls said Stunts, Speed and Style is predicted to attract more visitors to the National Railway Museum than 2014’s The Great Goodbye A4 featuring Mallard which was seen by more than 120,000 visitors at the Shildon museum in nine days.