A GIANT locomotive arrived home in Glasgow today after an epic 6000-mile journey ... but it didn't steam into Central or Queen Street.

In the early hours, the 179-tonne piece of locomotive history was carefully manoeuvred into George Square, as Robbie Coltrane helped launch an appeal for the new transport museum.

Locomotive 3007, a steam engine which has spent the past 20 years in a railway siding in South Africa, was designed and built in Polmadie, Glasgow, in 1945 and will form the centrepiece of the new Riverside Museum.

For the next few days, the public will be able to marvel at the vast scale of the machine which, at 74ft long and 13ft tall, can carry 14 tonnes of coal and 6050 gallons of water.

After the weekend it will be taken off to be carefully restored in time for the new museum's opening in 2010.

The arrival of the locomotive marks the start of a £5million public appeal to help fund the £74m cost of the new Clydeside attraction.

Harry Potter star Robbie Coltrane, who is one of the trustees of the appeal, attended the launch.

As he stood in front of the giant engine, Robbie said: "I remember as a boy on the way to school things like this trundling through Glasgow. It was pretty damn exciting.

"The new transport museum will also be exciting and I people will come to Glasgow to see it.

"As a boy I visited the transport museum all the time."

Carol Smillie, who launched the appeal, said: "I visited the transport museum regularly when I was young and have taken my own kids a few times.

"The new building will be incredible and will be a massive visitor attraction.

"I don't think raising the money will be an easy task but I'm confident the people of Glasgow will do it."

FirstGroup, the UK's largest rail and bus operator, is partially funding both the transport and restoration costs.

The locomotive, which once pulled the renowned Blue Train from Johannesburg to Cape Town, is one of the finest examples of British engineering, underpinning Glasgow's then- dominant role as a builder of steam engines.

Moir Lockhead, FirstGroup chief executive, said: "It is fantastic to finally see locomotive 3007 here in Glasgow - back where it belongs.

"Its return to Glasgow will give new generations the chance to marvel at this wonderful example of the rail revolution Scotland gave to the world. It's fitting that locomotive 3007 will be at the heart of the new museum."

Council leader Steven Purcell said: "We should be rightly proud of our industrial past and this locomotive is an example of when Glasgow was an engineering giant, supplying the world with ships and locomotives." Workers are reunited after 60 years

AS the Second World War drew to and end, production at a Glasgow engineering works switched from making armoured tanks to massive steam locomotives.

Among the 4000-strong workforce at the North British Locomotive Company's Polmadie plant were Hugh Hackett and Alexander Semple who were starting out on their careers.

Though they never knew each other they both worked on locomotive 3007, one of an order of 100 bound for South Africa.

As it left the workshop for the 6000-mile journey to its new home, neither man could ever have imagined being re-united with the massive beast 60 years later.

But thanks to the Evening Times they have again come face-to-face with the engineering marvel in George Square.

We appealed for anyone who worked on the engine to get in touch and today both men were guests of honour at the ceremony to launch the £5million public fundraising appeal for the new Riverside Museum.

Mr Hackett, who is now 87-years-old, worked for the North British company between 1942 and 1949.

He recalled: "I was 23 at the time and we were working on armoured tanks but when the end of the war was in sight we started on locomotives.

"At that time it was a big factory with about 4000 of us. However, I saw the writing on the wall that the factory was going to close so got out and went to Weir Pumps."

Mr Hackett, who lives in Muirend, eventually transferred to Rolls-Royce where he worked as an inspector. The grandad-of-four retired from that firm 24 years ago.

Mr Semple and Mr Hackett were delighted to meet up at the city's Transport Museum yesterday ahead of today's launch to reminisce.

The pair swapped stories about mutual friends and remembered the camaraderie in the works.

Mr Semple, who is 84, started serving his time at the factory in 1939 as a young man of 16.

He said: "I worked in the fitting shop and remember the locomotives were built up like a huge Lego set."

Although Mr Semple, who lives in Cathcart, quit the North British company in 1947, he was to finish his career in the same yard decades later.