HISTORIC FLYING SCOTSMAN COACH ARRIVES IN SOUTHAMPTON FROM THE USA'S WEST COAST 02 March 2007, Southampton - An historic Pullman observation coach that was once hauled by the famous Flying Scotsman steam locomotive has arrived in Southampton, England on board Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics' 66,532 GRT RoRo ship MV Taiko after an 8,000 mile (12875 kms) voyage from Long Beach in California. The Pullman observation coach had fronted an office building in San Francisco, California, after being left on the quayside at the end of the ill-fated 'Flying Scotsman' tour of the USA and Canada in 1971. Over the last 30 years the rail carriage was variously as a café, conference room and a humble store.

She was brought back to England thanks to a £30,000 appeal by the volunteers of the Swanage Railway, a well-known standard gauge preserved steam railway in the South West of England. After restoration she is due to enter service on Swanage Railway's six miles of track between Swanage and Norden in Dorset. It is billed as one of Britain's most beautiful railway journeys, passing as it does through the Isle of Purbeck and by the ruins of Corfe Castle situated west of the port of Southampton.