When and where you can see historic Royal Scot loco to bring tourists to Shrewsbury
Just under 35 miles separates Stourbridge from Shrewsbury. It's a journey that takes just under an hour.
But on Wednesday a steam-hauled excursion train running over a massive V-shape route will take passengers from the Black Country town, and other West Midlands stations, to Shropshire's county town.
It's the final Welsh Marches Express train of 2023, taking passengers from the likes of Kidderminster, Worcester and Cheltenham down to Bristol and then up through Hereford and Ludlow.
The train will be diesel-hauled to Bristol, where steam locomotive 46100 Royal Scot will take over for the journey to Shrewsbury.
The engine was one of 70 built to haul express trains from London Euston and up the West Coast Main Line towards Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.
Although sporting the name Royal Scot, which became the official name for the class of loco, this particular engine was built in 1930, three years after the original 46100.
Initially numbered 6152 and named King's Dragoon Guardsman, it swapped identities with the original Royal Scot in 1933 and taken across the Atlantic for the 'Century of Progress' exhibition in Chicago. It also toured the USA and Canada, crossing the Rocky Mountains in the latter.
The numbers and names were never switched back when it returned to the UK, and it continued to haul passenger trains in the Midlands - based depots including Nottingham and Derby - until 1962. It was then sold to Billy Butlin, who put it on display at his holiday camp in Skegness.
In the 1970s it ran at the Bressingham Steam Museum in Norfolk, but didn't work again until 2009. It only worked for a few months before serious faults were found, and it was again overhauled, returning to action in 2015.
