Sarner International, the leading experiential design expert, collaborated with Figment Productions and the Science Museum group to develop a brand new VR experience at the National Railway Museum in York. Launched to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the iconic Flying Scotsman, the VR attraction brings the steam locomotive to life for a multi-sensory experience.
Visitors can travel through time across the globe with Flying Scotsman VR, which brings the heyday of rail travel to life. This unique interactive experience, which is geared towards families (children 8+) and anybody with an interest in steam travel, British engineering, and science, takes guests through some of the most significant moments in Scotsman’s history.
Guests will travel through time after boarding the locomotive at London King’s Cross station in 1928 to watch Scotsman being built in the Doncaster workshops, see the British Empire Exhibition, and accompany the crew onboard for Scotsman’s record-breaking 100 mph run.
Celebrating a milestone anniversary
The experience, which was commissioned by the Science Museum Group and created in partnership with Figment Productions and Sarner International, makes use of free-roaming VR headsets to deliver a multi-sensory experience that is not possible in the real world, including an explanation of how steam locomotion works from inside the boiler.
Modern technology brings the Flying Scotsman’s story to life, including the heat from the firebox, the wind of the train at speed, and the engine’s roar.
“The Flying Scotsman VR Experience has been running for almost two months now and the response from visitors has been fantastic,” says Ed Cookson, director of Sarner International.
“We set out to design something with Science Museum Group and Figment in which the VR headset is just one component of a multi-sensory narrative journey, and even visitors who have previously been wary of VR are coming out of the Flying Scotsman VR Experience with a huge smile on their faces, feeling as though they have been travelling through the history and the engineering of this remarkable engine.
“Recent leaps in technology are enabling us to offer accessible experiences that are attracting new audiences into museums, whilst still delivering new wonders for their existing audiences.”
A centenary programme for an iconic locomotive
In 1923, the star locomotive left the Doncaster Works sheds on its inaugural passenger trip. It was the first locomotive of the newly established LNER (London and North Eastern Railway), and it was an engineering and design marvel. It was given its name in 1924 after being chosen to participate in the British Empire Exhibition in London and is named after the daily 10 a.m. rail service between London and Edinburgh.
Visitors can also enjoy the Flying Scotsman: 100 Years, 100 Voices exhibit, which tells fresh stories of the locomotive from a human perspective.
The Flying Scotsman VR experience is part of a centenary programme that also includes a Hornby train set commemorating the centenary of the Flying Scotsman, a £2 coin from The Royal Mint featuring the Flying Scotsman in vivid colour, and a new children’s book by bestselling author Michael Morpurgo called The Flying Scotsman and the Best Birthday Ever.
Sarner International was also recently chosen by the National Library of Wales to redevelop the Grade II-listed South Reading Room at the Wales Broadcast Archive.
Header image credit: Figment Productions
