Flying Scotsman in America

In 1970 two unlikely characters were part of Flying Scotsman’s tour of America and Canada. Describing their adventure of a lifetime are Richard Hinchcliffe, who was the thirteen-year-old son of tour manager George Hinchcliffe, and Bill Wagner, at that time a twenty-one-year-old train-chasing college student from Illinois. Their intense experience from the summer of 1970 is still very much part of their lives. Now, over fifty years later, they come together again using Wagner’s magnificent photographs and Hinchcliffe’s inside story to bring you their extraordinary record of how the world’s most famous steam locomotive captured American hearts.This is the untold story of Flying Scotsman’s 1970 tour of America from Texas to Wisconsin and into Canada. It hauled a trade mission along the eastern seaboard in 1969 – good for British business, but bad for the finances of the owner Alan Pegler. In 1970 the train set off again without the trade mission, calling at smaller venues, travelling on the cheapest tracks and meeting thousands of people along the way.

'We absolutely love this book, and we have no doubt you will as well.' -- Steam Railway Magazine, May/ June 2023
'A fascinating story well told.' -- Model Rail Magazine, Summer 2023

Richard Hinchcliffe is son of railway heritage pioneer George Hinchcliffe. As a schoolboy Richard travelled America and Canada with the Flying Scotsman, and later worked at Steamtown Railway Museum, Lancashire. In his thirties he studied American literature and was Head of PhD Training for Liverpool University. Bill Wagner spent time teaching in Jamaica and had a successful career in business. He retired in 2007 and resides in Austin, Texas.

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