Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has written a poem to mark 100 years since the York-based locomotive Flying Scotsman first entered service.

It comes as the National Railway Museum (NRM) - York home of the iconic steam engine - kick-started a centenary programme featuring events and exhibitions.

Mr Armitage's poem describes how the world famous locomotive “coughed into life” featuring “vast steel circumferences” and “rippling bodywork pouring with sweat”.

Celebrations were taking place in Edinburgh today (Friday) to mark the day Flying Scotsman entered service on February 24, 1923.

Gazette & Herald: Poet Laureate Simon Armitage (right) on board the Flying Scotsman during an event at Edinburgh Waverley station to mark the day the world famous locomotive, Flying Scotsman, entered service on February 24 1923. Picture: PAPoet Laureate Simon Armitage (right) on board the Flying Scotsman during an event at Edinburgh Waverley station to mark the day the world famous locomotive, Flying Scotsman, entered service on February 24 1923. Picture: PA

Mr Armitage rode on the locomotive as part of the process of writing the poem.

He said he was struck by “this incredible coming together of both mechanics and metaphysics”.

The poet told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There’s something very dreamlike about the whole contraption and the experience of standing next to it.”

He added: “There’s just something absolutely incredible when you’re up close and personal with it.”

Mr Armitage said he wanted to celebrate the “analogue world”, when people had “an actual relationship with physical objects”.

He continued: “I think in the digital world it’s often a very detached and dispassionate experience.”

Flying Scotsman is “an emblem of when we could have pride” about the railways, he said.

Gazette & Herald: Piper Kevin MacDonald from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, during an event at Edinburgh Waverley station to mark the day the world famous locomotive, Flying Scotsman, entered service on February 24 1923. Picture: PAPiper Kevin MacDonald from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, during an event at Edinburgh Waverley station to mark the day the world famous locomotive, Flying Scotsman, entered service on February 24 1923. Picture: PA

“My railway at the moment through Huddersfield is absolutely shameful and shambolic.”

Flying Scotsman was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and built in Doncaster.

Its achievements include hauling the inaugural non-stop London to Edinburgh train service in 1928, and becoming the UK’s first locomotive to reach 100mph six years later.

NRM director Judith McNicol said there are “many reason” why Flying Scotsman is “so special”.

The locomotive has “style and sophistication”, and it was a “very emotive” experience for people when they first saw it, she said.

The Flying Scotsman surprised travellers as it pulled into the Scottish capital on Friday to celebrate 100 years in service.

Dancers from the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society performed The Flying Scotsman, devised by Hugh Thurston in 1966, and the event was rounded off with a set by Celtic rock band the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

Gazette & Herald: Judith McNicol, Director of the National Railway Museum. Picture by David HarrisonJudith McNicol, Director of the National Railway Museum. Picture by David Harrison

Ms McNicol said: “Edinburgh Waverley is a fitting location to mark the centenary of the world’s most famous express passenger locomotive.

“It was here that Flying Scotsman completed its record-breaking, non-stop journey between London and Edinburgh in 1928, and Edinburgh is also the birthplace of Sir Nigel Gresley, Flying Scotsman’s designer.”

She said the locomotive will spend the rest of 2023 travelling across the country to allow as many people as possible to see it in its 100th anniversary year.