Letting off steam - the expensive way

Published on Thursday 1 April 2004 01:00

You’d never catch a woman doing it. But for some reason, men can’t stop. From small boys with their intricate train sets and Thomas the Tank Engine books, all the way through to multi-millionaire businessmen willing to squander it all on a clapped-out old engine, there’s something about trains that men find hard to resist.

The latest to answer the siren call of the steam train is Richard Branson. Not content with using the West Coast main line as his personal train set, he has set himself up as a benign Fat Controller intent on rescuing the Flying Scotsman from the clutches of foreign ownership.

Ever since Edinburgh District Council rejected the idea of a visitor’s centre designed round the 81-year-old locomotive, it has been in financial trouble. The train’s owners - Flying Scotsman Plc - have been unable to cope with the crippling running costs and will sell the engine to the highest bidder at a sale scheduled to take place tomorrow.

As the first train to break the 100 mph speed barrier and a vehicle that has eaten up two million miles of track during its lifetime, the Flying Scotsman is of considerable interest to international train enthusiasts and could sell for as much as 2 million. Such is the concern that the locomotive, which once ran non-stop from Edinburgh to London, may go abroad that the government has said it may intervene to keep it in the country. Lord Faulkner, a member of the Railway Heritage Committee, describes it as "an icon, a national treasure and an extraordinary feat of British engineering".

Well yes, but it’s a huge financial drain.The engine’s current owners declared a loss of 474,619 in 2002, while its principal shareholder, pharmaceuticals entrepreneur Tony Marchington, went bankrupt last September. That hasn’t stopped the queue of boys around the block desperate to buy it, however.

Others to have fallen for the train’s charm in the past have included Pete Waterman, the music promoter, and businessman Sir William McAlpine. Waterman describes it as "a bit like the Tutankhamun Curse. Everyone who’s owned it so far has gone bankrupt. I only owned it for six months and it didn’t half put a dent in my finances."

Waterman is apparently a train nut, having spent his childhood watching railways and eventually taking a job as a British Railways boilersmith before moving into the record industry. He evidently believes the theory that a curse hangs over the train, and anyone who owns it.

"It’s like a poisoned chalice." he said recently. "It’s got a curse and it makes people do the stupidest things."

McAlpine was more understanding: "I had 20 years of fun with the Scotsman, but also lots of expenses," he says.

Curiously, the train has never had a female owner. Are women immune to the charms of pristine engineering? Possibly. Or maybe they’re just more careful with their finances. Certainly, it seems Hornby train sets and repeated viewings of Ivor the Engine were a childhood hobby confined mainly to those of the male persuasion.

Maybe the real reason men are such great fans of the old days of steam is the undeniable efficiency of a steam train. The Flying Scotsman used to carry passengers from Edinburgh to London without stopping, an unthinkable suggestion today with multiple stops and even more delays. And compare the elegance of the Flying Scotsman to the tin cans we travel in today - it’s a different world.

Perhaps though, gentlemen, it’s worth bearing in mind, that while steam trains are great fun to travel in, they are possibly not quite so much of a joy to own.