A BRIGHTON sculptor is helping to bring one of Britain's greatest ever engineers out of the shadow of his two finest creations with a major new public art display.

Hazel Reeves has created this stunning 7ft 4in likeness of Sir Nigel Gresley who designed the iconic Flying Scotsman and Mallard steam engines.

The award-winning figurative sculptor hopes the new work will help raise the profile of one of Britain's greatest engineering minds after admitting she had to look him up when first approached about the commission.

The statue will be unveiled on the 75th anniversary of Sir Nigel’s death on Tuesday at 11am on the Western Concourse at King’s Cross station in London.

Ms Reeves, who was commissioned by the Gresley Society Trust for the statue, started working on the model in April and it took her around five months working for up to four hours at a time to craft out Sir Nigel's features.

The statue has spent the last five months or so at the foundry with the artist hopeful it will be finished next week, just in time for a late-night session putting Sir Nigel in place in one of the country's busiest railway stations ahead of its unveiling.

Ms Reeves has exhibited in more than 60 galleries UK-wide, teaches at Sussex Sculpture Studios and Phoenix Brighton and is the sculpture advisor for the Hove Plinth project.

She said: "When they originally spoke to me about the commission, I admit I had to go and look Sir Nigel up.

"I would say nearly all the people I spoke to during this had not heard of Sir Nigel and that's the problem and that's why this has all been set-up.

"If I said The Flying Scotsman or The Mallard then everybody knows what I'm talking about but wouldn't connect them with his name.

"I got a sense about the man behind his achievements, who he was as a man.

"He was quite a man, a real character with a ready humour although he did not suffer fools gladly.

"It's the biggest unveiling that I have had in terms of location and size of the sculpture.

"It's very exciting considering the long time it has taken to get this far, it has taken pretty much a year."