Sen, the train you travelled on was more likely the Flying Scotsman than the Royal Scot. The Scot was west coast.

My great grandfather was one of the drivers of the Royal Scot - not forgetting that the Scot was a class of locomotives, not just one locomotive. He lived in Horwich and travelled to Crewe as a driver - from where he would drive either to Euston or to Glasgow, stay overnight, and then travel back to Crewe the next day.

When a young boy living in Horwich, my father would run up the road towards the main line bridge near Blackrod and wait for his grandad to drive past. My great grandad would blow the whistle specially for his grandson. Many years later I also stood on the same bridge, watching the steam locomotives run underneath - but my g-g'father was long dead.

When he retired from the main line, he worked in the Horwich locomotive works, shunting parts on the internal factory track. His party piece was to get a worker to hold a walnut against the buffers; he would drive the engine slowly up so that the engine buffers would hold the walnut - and then crack the shell without splitting the nut.

That was skill.