Flying Scotsman Main Line Railtours September 2026

Thinking outside the box. Which can only be a good thing as Flying Scotsman and Tornado have been woefully underused on the main line since there last overhauls, plus money in Vintage Trains pocket as well

 

That would surely depend on if the Rail Adventure recruitment mentioned by @26D_M is purely for steam loco movements or to run tours. If tours I tend to agree with his hypothesis that ERS stock is likely.
That of course may well confirm or disprove my belief that the vast majority of railtour pax these days (us nerds who inhabit places like this excluded of course) would be far happier with a well airconditioned or heated Mk3 than a Mk1 where they can hear the loco.

 

I thought part of the fall-out between A1ST and WCR was that A1ST felt the loco was being over-used. If that's true, I can't imagine they'll want it out too much.

There's always the question of quality Vs quantity, and whether there's the market to support even more rail tours.
The UK market being very well served compared to probably anywhere else in the world.

 

At the risk of veering into the "Transparency .... etc" territory, that depends on the marketing. If one of the selling points is "travelling in the style of the steam era" but the plan is to use 1970s Inter City coaches I would consider there to be something of a deception.
On the other hand if the train is simply marketed as a ride behind 60103 or the A1 without much reference to the features then I think you're right that the stock is important only to the extent that it meets expectations of a pleasant experience.