Spring/Summer/Autumn 2018 CMEs

Agreed. Just to add a few points to that.

1. This is a business. From some points of view the Jacobite is one of the high points. But it requires resources and staff to be located hundreds of miles from home base. The Riley and WCR combination obviously works from that point of view. It suits both parties.

2. How many locos with tickets are suitable for the West Highland Extension apart from the three Black Fives and 62005? Maybe the B1, can't think of anything else. So at least two Black Fives are going to be based up there for seven or eight months of the year. This is a core part of the business.

3. Therefore the opportunities to ride behind the Riley 5s in the near future without heading to Fort Bill are going to be built around that. The new experiment of Rileys as promoter and WCR as TOC should be seen in that light and further demonstrates a good relationship. As mentioned above, the two runs of the Citadel on Nov 8 and 10 are the first trial of the model --hope it works for them.

 

There are two problems operating from Fort William I think but I stand to be corrected. It's a long way from base no matter which locos are involved and getting a support crew up there on a regular basis could be difficult, Ian Riley has a lot of resources but I don't know how NELPG manage, I just assume they have a good number of dedicated people. The other I have already touched on in another's post, how the Mallaig line will knock the guts out of any loco so there may be some resistance to committing an engine for a whole season.

 

Many thanks for your report of this special run, which makes for compelling reading. I've just uploaded a video which shows the final attack on the climb to Ais Gill:

 

That lovely deep roar of a Merchant being worked in full and 40. Takes me back to the 1960s. Wonderful