A disabled man's trip on the Flying Scotsman turned to an embarrassing nightmare when he was asked to leave a train carriage last so has not to inconvenience others.

Simon Pearson had been treated to first-class tickets on one of the National Railway Museum's Flying Scotsman summer trips to Scarborough by his fiance Joanne Weller.

But as the pair were returning to York, a steward on the train asked them if they would wait for all other passengers to leave first. When questioned, he admitted this was because Simon - who sometimes uses a wheelchair - was disabled.

Simon, 35, who is semi-paralysed on his left side, said the incident had left him "gutted".

"All of a sudden you are being discriminated against because you're disabled," he said.

He said he brought his wheelchair with him for the trip, but had not needed help boarding the train.

Now Joanne has written to the museum to complain - and said she had still not received a reply nearly two weeks later.

"I'm so angry," she said. "We'd had a smashing day out up until then. I told him (the steward) in no uncertain terms that we'd get off the train when we wanted to.

"I think other people were quite disgusted that we'd been asked."

The couple were marking the anniversary of the day Simon's life was torn apart when he suffered a stroke while mountain biking in the French Alps in 2002.

He was in a coma for five weeks and when he awoke, he was left with movement problems in the left-hand side of his body. He was forced to retire from his job as a financial advisor with Norwich Union.

A spokesman for the museum said the incident had been "unfortunate".

Graham Stratfold, head of visitor services, said: "The day after the incident Ms Weller refers to, a senior NRM staff member contacted her by phone to establish the circumstances under which her and her partner had felt distressed and emphasise the museum's concern. Ms Weller was asked to write to the museum with the details of her complaint so that the matter could be fully investigated.

"This inquiry is currently still progressing and we have therefore not provided Ms Weller with a formal response to her complaint, but fully intend to do so in due course."

Updated: 08:26 Tuesday, August 09, 2005