RTC: Edinburgh Flyer - 04/04/26

34067 was a brilliant performer and reliable in the early part of her preservation Main Line career. We always looked forward to a trip behind her on the ML as the performance could be quite spectacular and regularly headed out to see her many outings in the South. She was always a treat to watch working the VSOE Pullman's over the steeply graded Surrey Hills route.
Then one day the problems gradually started to creep in. We noticed that the trips with her were often suffering from reliability problems. I remember on one of the Sunny South specials to Weymouth we had a blistering run down to the South Coast, one of the best we had with ML steam. However, the return run with the BoB was terrible. The crew couldn't get her to perform as she wouldn't make steam for some reason. The worst trip we had with her was the infamous Steam Dreams excursion to Lincoln. The Class 37 diesel on the back failed first. 34067 failed a bit later on with a hot box. We got home from that one at 2.30am the following day!
There were a few others where she didn't run well at all. After that we had a sense of dread about booking any trips with 34067.
It is sad that this once great performer seems to be plagued with problems most of the time now.
Hopefully she might get back to performances like this one from 2011 (below) which is still one of my favourite shots that I have taken of ML steam:




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My wife and I travelled behind her often back then. Some great runs, but for someone with many memories of BR steam out of Waterloo, all were evocative, especially as the coaches hadn't been tarted up much.

 

Since she emerged from overhaul in October 2021, by my count she has racked up 74 main line tours, not far off 20,000 miles including ECS, and the failure at Heaton is only the second "on the road" outright failure (after 21/09/24 on The Cumbrian Mountain Express at Kirkby Stephen) in that time.

These are my own figures and the mileages are very approximate - very happy to be corrected if there's any failures I've missed!

 

Failed on the Great Britain too at Joppa in 2025. Had to be dragged back to Carnforth.

Failed on the Edinburgh Flyer in 2025 towards the end of the tour, and had to be dragged back to Carnforth with Rods off.

Failed at Appleby on the CME as you rightly say in 2024, along with this 2026 Failure.

 

Interestingly, not a single train hauled unassisted. That includes a period before the current 'coffin era too.
So it might have done 20k miles but what work has it done? Granted the wheels have revolved, the motion moved etc but it hasn't exactly taken the strain, has it? That might be wise conservation given it is, uniquely for 10A, air braked.

 

Wasn't counting the GB 2025 as I'd class that as failing "on shed" rather than on the road. Failing in such a way as to incur delay minutes.

I was under the impression the rods-off drag in May 2025 was due to the fire risk.

 

I mean it failed on the GB and had to be replaced by a diesel. That’s a failure of booked traction.