Flying Scotsman: on board during the emotional journey home

"All aboard!" she cried. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you're travelling today, can you please get aboard."

It took a while for what she was saying to sink in. The crowds were thronging ten or twenty deep around the Flying Scotsman as she stood in all her majesty at the platform, great gouts of steam billowing out all around her for all the world as if she were puffing contentedly on a fat cigar.

Everywhere there were video cameras whirring, mobile phones raised to snap pictures, necks craned for a better view.

Then it registered: this was a train that was about to leave the station. Horrified at the thought of being left behind, we all suddenly flocked for the nearest carriage doorway.

The train's stewards managed everything impeccably, however, and just after 7.40am, with a smooth surge of power and only a couple of minutes late, we were underway, the suburbs of London flickering past the windows.

The vintage carriages which had been specially laid on for this most historic of journeys were beauties: panelled in wood, with comfortable armchairs upholstered in floral-patterned cloth and tables immaculately set for breakfast with crisp white linen, sparkling cutlery and crystal.

"I feel like I've stepped back in time!" said Ian Littlefear, a customer services assistant with Virgin East Coast trains who'd normally have been preparing to cook and serve meals on the Newcastle-London Express, but was today a passenger on the most famous train of them all thanks to winning a competition. "It's absolutely fabulous! This is how trains should be."

It was hard not to agree.

Life is a fast-paced these days. But there was something wonderfully relaxing about being on board the Scotsman. She wasn't in a hurry, you see - so as we headed out of London there was time to take in the rolling English fields that flowed past the window; and time to wave - like Royalty - at the crowds lining every bridge and roadway and vantage point and station platform that we passed.

The devotion that this train inspired was just staggering. Everywhere, the crowds had turned out. They were standing in the middle of fields, clustered along roads that ran beside the track, leaning over bridges to snap the train chuffing past beneath - even straying onto the track itself in their eagerness to get that special photo.

Twice, the train had to stop because of people trespassing on the line; first near Peterborough, and again within half an hour of York.

That second time, a voice crackled over the tannoy. "Ladies and gentlemen, because of a recurrence of worrying concerns about people trespassing on or close beside the line, we're waiting for authority to proceed," announced our steward. "As soon as we can, we will continue with the final stage of our journey to York."

Nobody on board really minded, however. "I think this is the happiest train I've ever been on," said Ian Littlefear, the Virgin trains cook and caterer. "It's certainly the first train I've been on that hasn't been filled with angry people demanding refunds when it was delayed!"

The Scotsman mania began at just after 6am at King's Cross, as the first enthusiasts began to arrive. By 6.30 Tory big beast turned TV presenter Michael Portillo was there, resplendent in bright green blazer, filming for his latest series of Great British Railway Journeys.

No, he'd never been on the Scotsman before, he confirmed genially. "I'm a Flying Scotsman virgin. But I'm thrilled to be here. It's going to be a most exciting day."

Once on board, and steaming through the rolling fields of southern England, Welcome to Yorkshire boss Sir Gary Verity was just as excited.

"This is part of history," he said. "You've only got to look at the crowds. They're on every vantage point, every gantry, every bridge, even up on cherry pickers." And so they were.

For BBC Radio York presenter Elly Fiorentini, broadcasting live from the train, the journey was even more emotional.

"It's a real privilege to be here," she said. "They talk about the age of steam, but it was an era that was very very special. To be able to experience this ... as a girl who grew up in York, to travel on the Scotsman on its journey home, nothing can surpass this. This morning at King's Cross, the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck and there was a tear in my eye."

There was a tear in her eye as we pulled into York station five and a half hours later, too. But then, as a huge crowd cheered us in to Platform 9, there was scarcely a dry eye on the whole train. A truly magical moment. The Scotsman was home.