The “big man” from the “Scotrail No Ticket” viral video hit has been named as Alan Pollock from Stirling, Scotland by Deadline News.

Pollock was the vigilante hero of the "Scotrail No Ticket" clip on YouTube, unafraid to take on fare dodging student Sam Main on an Edinburgh to Perth train on 9 December.

The ruckus broke out after train conductor held the train at the station until the surveying student at Heriott Watt university got off or showed him a valid ticket.

“I'll sit here all night pal” the train conductor says, “I'm getting paid for this but they (the passengers) will start moaning. Why should they pay and not you?"

Main begins to swear saying “I’ve shown you my f**king ticket”

After a small argument, a burly passenger arises from a seat further down the carriage and asks “is there a problem?” With a single swoop, he grabs the student by the scruff of his neck and throws him off the train. As he sits back down other passengers clap and say “Thank you big man.”

The YouTube clip is captioned, “Don’t mess with the big man.”

Ian Hems, 27, from Perth, filmed the clip. Having seen the IT teacher record the incident, Pollock came over. Hems told Deadline news that the decisive passenger was the strong but silent type:

“The big man said, ‘if I end up in jail because of this, you’ve got to come and bring me a bag of pickled onion Monster Munch in prison.’ That’s pretty much all he said.”

The video has now been viewed by nearly 600,000 people and “the big man” even has a facebook group set up about him: "The Big Man Fae The Scotrail Train"

However he has attracted criticism from some quarters. Main has been eager to defend himself, saying that the “manhandling” left him with cuts and bruises on his face and that he did in fact have the right ticket. He told the Daily Record:

"I did have a ticket but I must have handed over the wrong one to the conductor.

"The next thing I know this big guy is manhandling me to the door and throwing me off. I landed on my face and I have cuts all over my cheek and legs."

His family said that as he didnt know his bag had also been thrown off he was frantically trying to get back on to the train to retrieve his belongings. They said it was especially important as he is diabetic and it contained his medicine, as well as his ipad and his university work.

On 12 December ScotRail confirmed it was looking into the incident. A spokeswoman said: "While we welcome the public’s support of our zero-tolerance stance on anti-social behaviour, our staff are trained in conflict management and we do not expect members of the public to take matters into their own hands.

"We are investigating the incident, which appears to show a person travelling without a valid ticket, refusing to pay for the journey, and swearing at a staff member in full view of customers."