Obituary: George Hinchcliffe, schoolmaster who rescued the Flying Scotsman from its ill-fated US trip

GEORGE Hinchcliffe was the Lincolnshire schoolmaster who saved the iconic locomotive Flying Scotsman from an uncertain fate on the shores of the Pacific, and brought it home to the UK.

Businessman Alan Pegler originally bought the engine from British Railways in 1963, and six years later shipped her to North America to haul an exhibition train, with Hinchcliffe, a time-served locomotive fitter, as train manager. The tour not only proved a financial disaster – Pegler went bankrupt – but the world’s most famous locomotive ended up lifeless in a seedy dockside corner of San Francisco.

Hinchcliffe, famous for his contacts, negotiated with creditors, concluded a deal with a shipping manager for the Flying Scotsman to be brought home via the Panama Canal, landed the locomotive back at Liverpool in 1969, and then, with a touch typical of his showmanship, had her driven directly back to Derby railway works for an overhaul.

Hinchcliffe loved the locomotive he called “The Lady”, but the measure of how much the general public had taken the legendary locomotive to their hearts was demonstrated to him by the thousands of spectators lining the railway tracks from Liverpool to Derby.

George Durant Hinchcliffe was six years old when, in 1928, the locomotive hauled the first-ever non-stop London-Edinburgh Flying Scotsman express. Forty years later to the day, he was one of those who spurred on the illustrious engine when, on 1 May, 1968, in front of a television audience of millions, the Flying Scotsman recreated her non-stop feat, welcomed into Edinburgh’s Waverley Station by a pipe band that was almost drowned out by cheering crowds.

Building magnate Bill McAlpine (now Sir William, 6th Baronet) had funded the rescue of the Flying Scotsman from the US fiasco, and he engaged Hinchcliffe to become manager of the Flying Scotsman once more, this time at its new home at Steamtown, the main-line depot for preserved locomotives at Carnforth in Lancashire. Here he led both the museum and the engineering works, restoring locomotives and carriages, including the refurbishment of Pullman cars for the Orient Express.

Hinchcliffe’s stewardship ensured that his beloved engine remained in sparkling mechanical condition, while developing her place at the head of tour trains. His apogee came in 1988 when, under “Mr Bill’s” sponsorship, the Flying Scotsman toured Australia, making it the world’s most travelled railway engine, and at one point Down Under setting a new world record for steam engines by travelling 422 miles non-stop.

Hinchcliffe was born and brought up in the strongly LNER county of Lincolnshire, serving an apprenticeship as a steam fitter.

War changed his life, and after service in minesweepers, he trained as a teacher. He had become a headmaster by the time McAlpine called on him to rescue the Flying Scotsman.

Away from teaching and mainline steam work, Hinchcliffe was an outstanding model railway engineer, creating locomotives, rolling stock and layouts from scratch, as well as being a founder member of both the O Gauge Guild and Gainsborough Model Railway Society. Under his direction, Gainsborough created one of the largest O Gauge layouts in the world, depicting part of the main East Coast line, with 125 locomotives, nine stations and half a mile of track, with ten operators needed to run it.

His own layout in the loft of his home in Galgate, Lancashire, included a model of Glenfinnan Viaduct – a tribute not only to Hinchcliffe’s love of Scotland, but also remembering that Sir William McAlpine’s great-grandfather Robert McAlpine created the real viaduct, a world first in using concrete to build it, and earning him the sobriquet “Concrete Bob”.

Hinchcliffe’s autobiography, An Obsession With Steam: The Memoirs of George Hinchcliffe, detailed events with original Flying Scotsman owner Alan Pegler, his work with railway painter and royal portraitist Terence Cuneo, and an account of his times with Bill McAlpine.

Hinchcliffe met his first wife, Frances, during the war. Thanks to her height, she was his love match from the start. She measured 4ft 8½in – standard gauge on railways. He is survived by his second wife Janet, and by two daughters and a son from his first marriage. GORDON CASELEY