An exhibition in words and pictures by Ian Scott Massie
My earliest memories of travelling are infused with soot and rust and noise, with the smells of oil and coal smoke, with misted up windows of diffused light, with the clatter and rumble of wheels on rails, with the perspective illusions of suspended station lights, with the rippled paintwork of carriages, with the hard prickle of moquette seat covers, with the lingering aroma of tobacco, with the echo of a whistle in the glass canopy of a terminus, with the accelerating punches of released energy as a steam engine draws a rake of coaches away from the platform lights and into the night.
This online exhibition was born out of these and many other memories of the East Coast Mainline which runs from Kings Cross Station in London to Waverley Station in Edinburgh - one of the great railway journeys of the world and the route of the Flying Scotsman. It includes stories which surround the line of with their cast of ghosts, film makers, inventors, criminals and poets.
Plot your journey - you can go from station to station or take a fast train to a particular destination. But, above all, enjoy the ride!