At danger of being sold into overseas ownership, 60103 Flying Scotsman was incorporated into the National Collection in April 2004 following a successful fundraising campaign, led by the National Railway Museum, to save the locomotive.
Decisions were taken to bring the locomotive in for heavy intermediate repair in September 2004, followed in January 2006 by an eighteen month heavy general repair. For the next five years, Flying Scotsman was subject to a vicious cycle of maintenance, as each problem addressed led to the discovery of new faults. In May 2011, it was believed that the locomotive was nearing a return to steam, with just a few tests remaining to be carried out, when the discovery of cracks in the frame and horn blocks stopped progress. Faced with the choice between restoration and preservation, the National Railway Museum opted for the former and an intensive restoration programme, at the workshops of Riley & Son (E) of Bury, began.
Now fully restored and resplendent in its final British Railways livery of Brunswick Green and numbered as 60103, Flying Scotsman’s return to steam in 2016 caught the nation’s imagination, with scores of well-wishers and enthusiasts turning out to catch a glimpse of the locomotive on the mainline.