Businessman who saved the Flying Scotsman
Born: April 16, 1920; Died: March 18, 2012.
Alan Pegler, who has died aged 91, was a businessman whose salvation of the world-famous locomotive Flying Scotsman ultimately led to bankruptcy and personal ruin. From a large house complete with Rolls-Royce and butler, he was reduced to living in one room over a shop in Paddington.
Mr Pegler's legacy remains the 120-ton steam engine Flying Scotsman, long since saved for the nation at the National Railway Museum in York. In 1963, he bought it from British Rail at scrap value of £3000, determined that this piece of national heritage live on. A wealthy businessman in his own right as well as the son of prosperous East Midlands industrialist Francis Pegler, he went on to sink tens of thousands of pounds into playing at full-size trains on the UK network.
What sank him was taking his engine and special train on a tour of the United States in 1969. Everything that could go wrong did so, and when the tour ended with Flying Scotsman stranded in San Francisco, a penniless Mr Pegler worked his passage home as a lecturer on a liner.
Bankruptcy would have spelt the end of a dream to anyone else, but it was the measure of the ever-optimistic Mr Pegler that he rebuilt his life as a cruise lecturer, medieval impersonator in the Tower of London, and tour guide on the rebuilt Orient Express.
Alan Francis Pegler, born in London and educated at Radley and Cambridge, is always remembered for his Flying Scotsman exploits, yet it was the Scots peer Lord Northesk who in 1950 fired his passion for railways through joint interest in saving the narrow Festiniog Railway in North Wales. The upshot was that within a few years, Mr Pegler was in the Festiniog chair, and the line rivalled Caernarvon Castle as biggest tourist attraction in North Wales.
Throughout the 1960s, Mr Pegler ebulliently toured the UK, taking the Flying Scotsman from Cornwall and Essex to Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and rarely without a pretty girl on his arm. Generous to a fault, he lavished welcome on the press and public wherever he went.
I met him for coffee in the North British Hotel around 1968, and he concluded our chat with my having the unforgettable experience of a footplate ride on Flying Scotsman on the next leg to Newcastle.
Far too late in life, Mr Pegler was made OBE in 2006 at the age of 86. Married four times, he is survived by two children.
GORDON CASELY
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article