Behind the Scenes: Bringing the Flying Scotsman to Life in VR
What happens when you take one of Britain’s most famous locomotives and turn its history into an immersive VR experience? For the Flying Scotsman’s centenary, Sarner International partnered with Figment Productions to create an 11-minute free-roaming VR experience for the National Railway Museum in York. From a meticulously recreated 1930s King’s Cross waiting room to a fully digital Flying Scotsman, visitors step inside the locomotive’s history - travelling through its engineering, record-breaking achievements and iconic journeys. Behind the scenes, LiDAR scanning, photogrammetry, physical effects, sound, VR and detailed historical research were brought together to create a seamless experience where technology becomes almost invisible. Discover how the team designed an experience that allows visitors to step inside history, explore the impossible and feel the power of Flying Scotsman for themselves.
Behind the Scenes: Bringing the Flying Scotsman to Life in VR
Few locomotives have captured the public imagination quite like the Flying Scotsman. To mark its centenary, the Science Museum Group wanted to do more than celebrate an extraordinary piece of railway history. It wanted to give visitors the opportunity to experience the story of the locomotive - its engineering, its achievements and its place in British culture - in an entirely new way.
The result was Flying Scotsman VR, an immersive experience created by Sarner International in partnership with Figment Productions for the National Railway Museum in York.
But what happens behind the scenes when you take one of the world's most famous locomotives and turn its history into an 11-minute free-roaming VR experience?
Starting with the story
The challenge was never simply to recreate Flying Scotsman digitally.
The experience needed to appeal to families, casual visitors, railway enthusiasts and people who might know very little about steam locomotives. It also needed to bring the science and engineering behind the machine to life.
This meant starting with the story.
Visitors begin in a recreation of a 1930s waiting room at London King's Cross. From the paint colours and floor tiles to railway posters, signage and period props, every detail was researched to establish a convincing sense of time and place.
Even the frosted glass doors become part of the storytelling. Projected silhouettes and ambient sounds create the impression of a busy railway platform beyond.
Then the doors open.
In the physical environment, visitors step through into the VR experience. Digitally, they emerge onto the vast platform at King's Cross, where Flying Scotsman is waiting.
The transition is deliberately seamless - the physical and digital worlds are designed as one continuous experience.
Designing for immersion
One of the defining features of Flying Scotsman VR is its free-roaming technology.
Rather than sitting in one position, visitors can stand and physically move through the virtual environment using untethered VR headsets. Four visitors share the same virtual world, seeing one another as avatars as they explore together.
That presented a very different design challenge.
The physical environment, VR experience, technology and show control all needed to work together precisely. Visitors should never be reminded that they are inside a VR attraction. Instead, every transition needed to feel natural.
This holistic approach was central to the design. The physical waiting room is recreated digitally inside the headset, meaning visitors see the same environment before and after entering VR. The technology effectively disappears behind the story.
Recreating an icon
Authenticity was particularly important when recreating Flying Scotsman itself.
The locomotive and the dynamometer car used during its famous 100mph run were captured using LiDAR scanning and photogrammetry. This produced highly accurate digital data that could then be optimised to create models capable of running smoothly within the VR environment.
The result allows visitors to get closer to Flying Scotsman than would normally be possible - from stepping aboard the locomotive to exploring its engineering from the inside.
At one point, visitors are even "shrunk" down to the scale of steam particles, allowing them to explore how steam locomotion works from within the boiler.
It is a good example of how immersive technology can do more than recreate history. It can provide perspectives that are physically impossible in the real world.
Making history tangible
The VR journey takes visitors through some of the defining moments in Flying Scotsman's history.
They travel to Doncaster Works, where the locomotive was built, experience the 1924 British Empire Exhibition and witness the moment in 1934 when Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive officially recorded at 100mph.
They also experience the locomotive's famous race against a plane and speedboat - and feel the power of the engine through a combination of physical effects.
Vibration recreates the rumble of the locomotive. Fans create the sensation of wind at speed. Heat lamps evoke the intense warmth of the furnace.
These sensory details are important because immersion isn't created by technology alone. It comes from combining storytelling, physical design, sound, movement, visual media and technology into a coherent experience.
Designing for a moving attraction
There was another challenge: Flying Scotsman VR wasn't initially intended to remain in one museum.
The experience was designed to tour the UK before becoming a permanent attraction at the National Railway Museum in York.
Sarner and Figment therefore developed the attraction inside two reusable 40-foot shipping containers. When installed, the containers join to form a single experience, providing a robust and flexible solution while reducing the need for new construction and associated waste.
The result was an immersive attraction that could travel with the Flying Scotsman centenary celebrations before finding its permanent home.
When the technology disappears
Perhaps the most important lesson from Flying Scotsman VR is that the technology is not the main attraction.
The VR, physical effects and digital environments are all there to serve the story.
Visitors begin in King's Cross, travel through the history and engineering of Flying Scotsman, and eventually return to the waiting room. They remove their headsets and discover that they have arrived at Edinburgh Waverley - completing the locomotive's iconic journey from London to Edinburgh.
It is a final piece of storytelling that works because the physical and digital experiences have been designed together.
And that is what happens behind the scenes: not simply the creation of a VR experience, but the careful integration of research, interpretation, physical design, digital content, engineering, technology and storytelling to make history feel real.
For the Science Museum Group, the approach has proved highly successful. More than 90% of visitors surveyed said the experience had brought the story of Flying Scotsman to life.
Flying Scotsman VR demonstrates what can happen when immersive technology is used not as an end in itself, but as a tool for storytelling - transforming visitors into an experience they can step inside, explore and remember.
