It was a close-run thing, with a red signal against them, where the big wheels slow to less-than walking pace, combined with a couple of less than satisfactory water trough pickups, but they pushed on anyway.
"It's absolutely fatal to do this sort of exercise if one's going to do one's nut every time something goes wrong," said a beaming Pegler, "it's the exception when things go without a hitch."
She smashed it, steaming creamily into Waverley Station 30 minutes under the record-breaking time, albeit with a lighter load. Like all great documentaries, it's as much about the people as it is the machine, but 4472 was and is movingly magnificent.
"There's a feeling you are being pulled, not by a mechanical box on wheels, but by something pulsating and alive," said Awdrey.
At the end of the film, the long shots of the hundreds of scrapped old locos waiting for the gas axe are terrible to behold. Progress takes no prisoners, but it's worth recalling how dangerous, dirty and polluting steam trains were. Nevertheless, we owe Pegler and all the other owners, including Pete Waterman, Sir Alfred McAlpine, Tony Marchington and the NRM - together with the legions of talented engineers and staff who have also served sometimes against almost insurmountable financial and technical odds to keep 4472 on the rails - a huge debt of gratitude.
As one 1968 spectator put it: "A nation that forgets its past has no future."
Peep, peeeeeeeep to that.
THE FACTSLNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman
Configuration: 4-6-2
Gauge: 4ft 8½in standard gauge
Length: 70ft
Height: 13ft
Weight: 96.25 tons
Cylinders: Three
Boiler pressure: 220lb in2
Firebox heating surface: 215ft2
Tractive effort, 85 per cent boiler pressure: 32,909lb
Power: 1,435 max drawbar horsepower, 2,921 max cylinder horsepower
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Source: The Flying Scotsman review: should we have stuck with steam?
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