North Briton 28/9/19

Thank you. Light was probably the best I’ve seen it there for a while.

 

Tour now been stuck behind a failed ballast train for over an hour north of Donny - just on the move again

 

I'm just glad I'm not on this special....
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U54639/2019/09/28/advanced

I'll bet there are a number of loco owning groups giving thanks that they
1) Don't promote tours
and
2) they are not involved

Cheers, Neil

 

According to RTT arrived back at King's Cross at 01:34 today - 191L. Seen here at last light over the Dilston Crossing near Corbridge in Northumberland.

 

For those of us travelling with Tornado next weekend lets hope the Gods smile on us a bit better.

 

Yes. Murphy's and Sod's Laws both seemed to apply in abundance yesterday. Bet the footplate and support crews/stewards slept soundly last night. Hats off to them all. Would love to see an account on here of the day itself from a passenger perspective.

 

That'll be us then. Wife already making thinly veiled threats as to what might happen to various parts of my anatomy if there's a repeat

 

x 2

 

With those timings could almost of been a normal Steam Dreams day out!

 

I will go so far as to write that Doncaster to Carlisle was very good!

 

As Judge Rinder would say "Understood"!

 

I have a spare sleeping bag that you could take with you so that she can get her head down around midnight.

 

Does anyone know why this week's tour is WCR operated and not DBC operated?

 

We can speculate - have DBC got crews available, are the costs the same, etc - but does it really matter> WCR operated the Aberdeen trips competently and there is no reason to think their crews are second rate.

 

My point was why would it be DBC one week and WCR the next rather than both DBC or both WCR, especially if the riveria rake is used again this Saturday.

 

Could be that. Could be the non-Tornado legs. Last Saturday ECML to Doncaster with a class 90 (Les Ross busy on the Cumbrian Coast Express). That looks like a DB job. This Saturday diesel Leicester to Doncaster, there's far more flexibility there, either DB or WCR could do that.