You wait 10 years for a train ... then this happens: Flying Scotsman view not what trainspotter had hoped for

Thousands of people lined bridges and stations along the East Coast Main Line today to see the inaugural journey of the Flying Scotsman.

The locomotive travelled from Kings Cross station to York following a decade-long, £4.2million refit.

Ryan Allen, from South Yorkshire, was one of the many who waited for hours to see the iconic train.

After driving 50 miles from his home, he parked near the railtrack at Little Bytham in Lincolnshire to get a good view of the Flying Scotsman passing by.

But after waiting 40 minutes, his effort was not rewarded when a Virgin train obscured the view of the locomotive at the crucial moment.

"I had a feeling this would happen!" Ryan wrote when he posted the clip on Twitter.

Virgin Trains contacted him to apologise and offered him a free train trip to the US to see one of the famous rail networks in Atlanta, Georgia.

"We feel bad about that photobomb! I hear Atlanta, Georgia has a super busy rail network. Fancy a trip courtesy of Virgin Atlantic? Because we'd love to make you the #FlyingYorkshireman in apology!"

@Virgin_TrainsEC @VirginAtlantic is this for real?!!!!Tickets to Atlanta!!!!!!!!!

— Ryan Allen 🦉🔵⚪️🔵 (@Ryeallen) February 25, 2016

Mr Allen later told The Telegraph why the Flying Scotsman meant so much to him: "I wanted to see it as I knew I wouldn't get many chances to see it other than in the museum."

Shrouded in steam through the scenic countryside almost a century after it was built, the Flying Scotsman gave other trainspotters a day to remember.

Built in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, in 1923, the Flying Scotsman soon became the star locomotive of the British railway system, pulling the first train to break the 100mph barrier in 1934.

The National Railway Museum (NRM) in York bought the locomotive for £2.3 million in 2004 before work got under way on its restoration in 2006.