A YORK museum's appeal to bring the Flying Scotsman to the city has topped £220,000 today, bosses have revealed.

With two weeks left until a bidding war for the historic locomotive ends, pledges are continuing to flood in to help the National Railway Museum's (NRM) plans.

As a team from the museum prepare to travel to London tomorrow to make a pre-bid inspection of the 81-year-old train, museum bosses said donations from the public had ranged from £1 to £50,000.

The Friends Of The NRM pledged £25,000, and the museum is also hoping to convince national funders to back its bid.

Andrew Scott, head of the NRM, said: "The level of support we have received is absolutely staggering and we can't thank people enough for their generosity and goodwill.

"This huge groundswell of support tells us that British public clearly believes, as do we, that such an important part of our railway heritage should belong to the nation.

"The NRM can offer the Flying Scotsman a secure future in the national collection and ensure that many thousands more people will be able to see to this giant of the steam age every year."

Updated: 11:24 Thursday, March 18, 2004