Pete Waterman says it's cursed, but that hasn't stopped the National Railway Museum from trying ro bring it to York. Nick Morrison looks at the battle to save the flying Scotsman.

IT'S a national treasure, but it isn't encased in any museum. Nor is it on public view, where its many admirers can come to pay their respects. Neither is it preserved on behalf of the nation, a guarantee it will be there for future generations. It may be just as much a cultural icon as Turner's watercolours, Tower Bridge or the Lindisfarne Gospels, but the Flying Scotsman is surrounded by derelict vehicles in a shed in Southall, on London's western edge.

But it was in this unlikely setting that Jim Rees fell in love with the 81-year-old locomotive. Perhaps it was pity, seeing the most famous steam engine in the world among cars with their windscreens missing. Or perhaps it was the realisation that even amidst such dirt and decay, the ageing star has more glamour in its smallest wheels than other vehicles could ever summon.

"I went down there liking it and believing we should get it, and I came back thinking this is a really wonderful thing, it is gorgeous, and it has got wonderful style and presence," says Jim, the railway vehicles collection manager at the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York.

"You don't expect to see one of your major cultural icons in a private shed, but when it is not out on the main line, which is at least half the time, it is in that shed and nobody sees it at all."

But if Jim gets his way, all that will change. After more than 40 years in private hands, the Flying Scotsman is up for sale, and the NRM is in the hunt to buy it. After making a loss of £475,000 last year, and with its principal shareholder bankrupt, Flying Scotsman plc has invited bids for the engine, to be in by Friday.

Estimates have ranged from £800,000 to about £2.5m, although the smart money seems to be on it selling for around the £1m mark, buyers having to take into account the high costs of maintaining a feat of engineering now in its ninth decade. The NRM's public appeal has reached £350,000, with an application in the pipeline to the Heritage Lottery Fund to make up the shortfall.

IT may be the most famous locomotive in the world, but had it not been for millionaire railway fanatic Alan Pegler it would have been scrapped when it was taken out of service in 1963. Since then, it has changed hands several times, once being part-owned by pop impresario Pete Waterman.

Each owner has tried to make it pay its way, with special tours, trips to America and Australia, and fund-raising appeals, but each has failed, defeated by the cost of constant repairs and maintenance to keep it running. According to Waterman, this is the curse of the Flying Scotsman.

But neither Jim nor the NRM have been put off by talk of curses, and nor do they want to let this opportunity pass them by. With fears the locomotive may be taken out of the country if they fail, this time they're going for broke.

"There is no doubt that the private owners who had Scotsman have saved it and given it stability, but although it is a household name, you can't always make money out of a household name," Jim says.

For rail enthusiasts, the appeal of the Flying Scotsman is something of an oddity. It may be the only one of its type - an A3 - left after the 70-odd others were scrapped, but in engineering terms it was surpassed by the A4s, one of which, the Mallard, captured the world speed record for a steam locomotive, 126mph. Scotsman was the first to achieve an independently verified 100mph, but it was considered a dowdy workhorse when set against the art deco style of the A4s.

Unlike many other preserved engines, particularly those in the NRM's collection, its many repairs and overhauls mean that much of the original locomotive has been replaced. It has had two boilers since 1977, and many steam devotees believe it has been compromised by the changes.

Nor is it quite what it seems. Flying Scotsman was originally the name of the London-Edinburgh route, with a 20-minute stop for lunch at York, which first ran in 1862. But in 1928 this route was completed non-stop for the first time, taking eight hours three minutes, pulled by the then five-year-old engine of the same name, and it was then that the legend was born. With its apple green livery and its 4472 number, the Flying Scotsman was transformed from a piece of machinery to a national icon.

'IT is the most famous locomotive in the world. If you talk to the proverbial person in the street and ask them to name a railway engine, that is what they come up with," says NRM head Andrew Scott. "The question is, why is it famous?

"It started off because when it was new it was the first engine delivered to the London and North Eastern Railway when it was set up in 1923, and it was the biggest express engine ever run on the east coast. It was obviously quite something in its day. It was put on show at the Wembley Exhibition in 1924 and millions of people saw it, so by the time it was a year old it was famous, and it never looked back.

"It would be a disaster for heritage in the UK if something as important as this were to go abroad. It is a national icon, there is no doubt about it. Not only would it be lost to people in the UK, it would not be valued as much abroad, and there would be a real long-term threat to its future."

The romance in its name is such that today GNER's blue carriages sport a crest proclaiming they are on "The Route of the Flying Scotsman", and perhaps it is in the name itself that much of its appeal lies: had it been given a more ordinary title it may never have achieved its iconic status.

Throughout its stay in private hands, Flying Scotsman has remained a working engine, bar periods of overhaul, and Jim is determined this will continue to happen should it come to the NRM.

"Scotsman has been so rebuilt over the years, that has become its very character, and I have no concerns about keeping it going for ever," he says. "This engine is different: it is more than the sum of its moving parts and its nuts and bolts. It is the magic, the story, the whole ethos of it.

"A lot of people assume that our cultural icons are held for the nation, and there is an indignation that such a part of all our lives should suddenly have a price tag like something in a supermarket. It has brought so much joy to so many people and it shouldn't be stuck away in a siding."

l To donate to the NRM's appeal, send cheques, payable to National Railway Museum (Save Our Scotsman Appeal), to John Ingham, Save Our Scotsman Appeal, National Railway Museum, Leeman Road, York, YO26 4XJ, or call (01904) 686277.