Flying Scotsman was a flagship locomotive for the LNER built in 1923. It represented the latest steam engine design and technology.   It was used for promotional purposes to boost the companies image..

This famous locomotive was selected to haul the prestigious non-stop Flying Scotsman train service from London to Edinburgh, hauling the inaugural train on 01 May 1928. For this the locomotive ran with a new version of the large tender which held 9 tons of coal. This enabled it to travel the 392 miles (631 kilometres) from London to Edinburgh in 8 hours non-stop. The tender included a corridor connection and tunnel through the water tank giving access to the locomotive cab from the train in order to allow replacement of the driver and fireman without stopping the train.

On November 30, 1934, running a light test train, it became the first steam locomotive to be officially recorded at 100 miles per hour and earned a place in the Land speed record for railed vehicles; the publicity-conscious LNER made much of the fact and it was front page news..

The first Special Scotch Express ran in 1862, with simultaneous 10am departures from the King's Cross Station in London and Waverley Station in Edinburgh. The original journey took 10½ hours, including a half-hour stop at York for lunch; however, increasing competition and improvements in railway technology saw this time reduced to 8½ hours by 1888.

From 1900, the train was dramatically modernised, introducing such features as corridors between carriages, heating, and dining cars. As passengers could now lunch on the train, the York stop was reduced to 15 minutes, but the overall journey time remained 8½ hours.

The 1928 non-stop Flying Scotsman had improved catering and other on-board services - even a barber's shop. In 1932, journey time was down to 7 h 30m and 7h 20m by 1938. The Flying Scotsman would remain a non-stop service  until the early 1960s when diesel locomotives took over.