THE National Railway Museum (NRM) has scooped a prestigious award for its Save Our Scotsman campaign.

The York-based attraction won the Museums and Heritage Show Award for Best Marketing Campaign during a special ceremony at the Caf Royal, in London.

It was given in recognition of the successful operation mounted to prevent the world's most famous locomotive, Flying Scotsman, from being sold abroad.

The museum's press and marketing team launched the campaign in February last year, in consultation with the fundraising department, after the engine's previous owner put it up for sale.

With a deadline of just over six weeks and no budget to raise both awareness and funds to beat off competitors in a sealed bidding process, a sustained media campaign was carried out on a regional, national, and international level - ensuring Flying Scotsman was saved for the national collection.

Andrew Scott, head of the NRM, said: "The NRM's marketing team unquestionably deserves to receive this recognition for the fantastic media exposure the SOS appeal gained, which amounted to approximately £8 million worth of coverage.

"The award acknowledges the hard work that was undertaken by both their team and by other museum staff in the run up to the successful bid.

"It is an absolutely tremendous achievement to have raised more than £3 million which ultimately enabled us to acquire Flying Scotsman, a truly British icon, for the nation. I am honoured to be the head of a museum that continually strives for and achieves the best in its league."

The NRM successfully staged a summer programme of excursions last year, and Flying Scotsman is currently gearing up for its Ride The Legend excursions, between York and Scarborough.

They will begin on Tuesday, May 31, Wednesday, June 1, Thursday, June 2 and throughout the summer holidays every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from Tuesday, July 5, until Thursday, September 8.

Meanwhile, the NRM's £11million outpost, Locomotion, at Shildon, near Bishop Auckland, also scooped the permanent exhibition award at the ceremony.

The County Durham based museum was established to provide greater access to more than 70 vehicles in the national collection, that were either at risk through outdoor storage at the NRM in York, or totally inaccessible to the public.

Updated: 08:38 Friday, May 13, 2005