Flying Scotsman set to go on display after decade away

The Flying Scotsman steam train is set to make its first public appearance in a decade following a £4.2 million restoration project.

The steam-powered locomotive will take to the track for a series of test runs in January, before it is officially re-launched at a ceremony at London's Kings Cross station.

It will return to the National Railway Museum to go on display later in the year.

The Scotsman on the rails in 1986 Credit: Press Association

The museum announced further details of its Flying Scotsman 2016 programme as the locomotive enters the closing phases of its painstaking refurbishment in the workshop of Riley & Son's in Bury.

Flying Scotsman was built in Doncaster in 1923 and soon became the star locomotive of the British railway system, pulling the first train to break the 100mph barrier in 1934 and ending up synonymous with the cocktail bar image of the service it was named after.

The National Railway Museum bought Flying Scotsman for £2.3 million in 2004 and work began on it in 2006.