Steam icon Oliver Cromwell will be back on the main line from London to East Anglia tomorrow – and is expected to attract a number of admirers to watch what may be its final visit to the region.

The 'Britannia Class' British Railways pacific locomotive is to haul a special train from Liverpool Street to Norwich and back – through Diss – on February 22.

Its boiler certificate runs out next month and there has been no decision on whether the National Railway Museum's locomotive will be overhauled to return to the main line – or just kept as a static exhibit at one of the NRM's sites.

The locomotive entered service in 1951 and spent its first 10 years hauling express trains on the Great Eastern Main Line between London, Norwich, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.

It was then transferred to the north west of England where it hauled the last ever British Railways steam service in August 1968.

It was saved by the NRM which loaned it to the Bressingham Steam Museum near Diss where it was the star exhibit for 36 years until it was decided to restore it to working order in 2004.

However, it can continue to operate on preserved railways for another few years and is expected to take part in a 50th anniversary of the end of BR steam at its base on the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire in August.

The locomotive is due to pass through Diss at around 12.50pm, Trowse Junction and swing bridge at around 1.15pm and Thorpe Junction shortly after that, arriving in Norwich around 1.20pm.

For its return journey it will leave Norwich at 7.06pm, passing through Diss at around 7.30pm.