The LNER Encyclopedia

hi my name is robert mann i live in wrexham north wales i am trying to find out some info on my father.as a child we always went on train journeys and have great memorys.i have heard storys of my father being a fireman on flying scotsman and also links to the mallard.as anyone got any info on how to find past employees on these locos or any links to go by.thankyou.great to be part of this site.

You may not find it that simple to find out for certain whether your father did/did not drive either Flying Scotsman or Mallard. In the case of Flying Scotsman, that name belongs both to a particular locomotive ( LNER no. 4472/ British Railways no. 60103 ) and to the train which traditionally departed from London Kings Cross at 10.00 a.m. bound for Edinburgh. Someone could easily have driven that particular locomotive many times without ever going near the 10.00 from Kings Cross, and the opposite is also true. A regular driver on the 10.00 might never even have worked on Flying Scotsman the locomotive. So it would help if you know where and when your father worked on the railways, that should at least narrow down the search and possibly even rule out some possibilities.

For a start, you should look at the top post here by Richard which is called A Note for Genealogical Researchers. That gives a link to the National Archives where a lot, but not all, of the railway staff records are kept. After that it would be a matter of actually going through any relevant documents that exist.

The other message you should look at is the one by Marilyn a bit further down this list. Her question was almost exactly the same as yours and the replies may give you some more ideas.

Hope this helps and the best of luck with your search.