Ann Middleton is commercial manager at Didcot Railway Centre

WE have been working hard over the summer preparing for our visit this weekend by one of the most famous steam engines of all time.

This title can be a little challenging for us at Didcot Railway Centre because we are the living museum of the Great Western Railway and while we have many famous engines here – King Edward II, Pendennis Castle (incidentally the only castle to have been round the world! – a future column perhaps), Burton Agnes Hall and Cookham Manor – none are quite as famous as the Flying Scotsman.

Flying Scotsman will be arriving in time for the August Bank Holiday weekend and we are hoping she will bring lots of fans from all over the south east to see her.

She will be running on our main demonstration line all day and so there will be lots of chances to get a great view of her running past our picnic area.

On the Sunday and Monday we will have another large London & North Eastern railway engine on display as Union of South Africa will be visiting.

Union of South Africa is a 1930s streamlined engine of the same type as record holder Mallard (which still holds the world speed record for a steam train of 126mph).

This is possibly the last chance to see these two steam engines in the same location.

We want our visitors to enjoy the Great Western Railway, too, so there will be unlimited rides on our branch line behind visiting GWR engine 813.

We have also moved the broad gauge train out of the transfer shed so visitors will be able to see Fire Fly, Iron Duke and their carriages out in the open for the first time for some years.

We wish we could have run them but they are both waiting for a place in our restoration workshops.

We wanted to make the days a bit special so we have some musical entertainment from Sax on TV on all three days and our own Didcot buskers will be performing on the Sunday.

During the day there will be a barbecue and our ever-popular Black Python Real Ale Bar will be open.

It’s a great opportunity for visitors to enjoy a burger and a pint while they watch the trains.

Tickets for this great event are available online right up to the last minute and details of how to book are on our website.

We look forward to welcoming visitors to the railway centre.

As always. for full details of opening times and prices see didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk