The 5 Scottish railway artworks among Britain's best-loved 20 unveiled

Terence Cuneo’s classic painting Blue Train at Bowling Harbour is among those chosen from a long list of 200, with others including famous cross-Border trains and locomotives The Coronation Scot and Mallard.

The selection was announced to coincide with World Art Day on Tuesday after nearly 4,000 people took part in a poll. A vote to find the favourite will run until June 1 with the winner to be announced on June 9 - rail pioneer George Stephenson’s birthday.

Railway 200 commemorates the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825 when Stephenson drove Locomotion No 1 for 26 miles between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton in the north east of England.

Cuneo’s painting from 1965 features one of Scotland’s revolutionary electric trains, nicknamed for their livery, which replaced steam on the Glasgow network in 1960.

Also shortlisted is Ann Emily Carr’s 1980s painting Mallard, which holds the 126mph steam locomotive speed record, travelling over the River Tweed.

On the west coast, The Coronation Scot Ascending Shap Fell, by Norman Wilkinson, depicts the London-Glasgow express in the Lake District in 1937.

The interior of one of Scotland’s major railway factories is also on the shortlist, in Ralph Gordon Tetley’s painting The Erecting Shop of the North British Locomotive Company’s Hyde Park Works, Glasgow from 1924.

The fifth artwork with Scottish links is a painting in Aberdeen Art Gallery’s collection - Train Landscape by Eric Ravilious (1940) showing a chalk horse on the Wiltshire Down from the interior of a third class compartment.

Among others on the shortlist are Joseph Turner’s 1844 painting Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway, and four others by Cuneo: Clapham Junction (1961), Talyllyn Railway on the Dolgoch Vidauct (1967), The Day Begins (1949) and Waterloo Station (1967).

UK heritage minister Baroness Twycross said: "For two centuries, our railways have carried passengers and freight as well as inspiring artistic creativity across Britain.

“This remarkable collection showcases how deeply trains are woven into our cultural fabric.”

Alan Hyde, from Railway 200, which is organising the year-long celebrations, said: “The railway has always been a source of inspiration for artists, helping to enrich our cultural lives.

“We hope that in rail’s bicentenary year art lovers will travel by train to enjoy the best of railway-inspired art at first hand and help to choose the nation’s favourite.”

Andrew Ellis, chief executive of online gallery and art education charity Art UK, which compiled the long list, said: "There are so many terrific artworks of trains and the railway in the UK national collection and on Art UK.

“This first public vote has narrowed this down to 20 artworks, from which a winner must now be chosen.

“Given the shortlist, this will be quite a challenge, and I cannot wait to see which one is chosen as the ‘world’s favourite UK railway artwork."