Today, passengers boarding Great North Eastern Railway trains are reminded by the legend written on each carriage that they are about to ride the ‘Route of the Flying Scotsman’. The name the ‘Flying Scotsman’ has transcended cultural, ethnic and geographical barriers to become recognised worldwide. The train service has existed since 1862, following the establishment of through carriages on the route between London and Edinburgh. However the idea of the Flying Scotsman first entered the public imagination in 1888, when Victorian railway companies were locked in a ‘Race to the North’. The popular press began to use the term Flying Scotsman, the name stuck and a legend was born. In 1924 the newly formed London & North Eastern Railway named their first locomotive Flying Scotsman after the service. The exploits of this locomotive as a record-breaker, globetrotter and steam survivor wove new threads into the legend.