PUTTING IT BLUNTLY
HAVING recovered from whatever bug struck so many passengers on GBRf’s ‘This Time It’s Personal’ four-day tour, at the cost of an extra Carlisle hotel night, lost London hotel booking, and inability to travel on Day 4 of the tour, your long-suffering writer could sit back and count his lost opportunities.
In the previous Practice and Performance we reviewed the organisers’ merciful decision to head straight from Mossend to Carlisle with Class 91 No. 91130 instead of the promised itinerary along the splendid coastline from Edinburgh to Newcastle, followed by a Class 60 trundle across the Tyne Valley, mostly in darkness at amaximum speed of 60mph. There had been insufficient space to look at this West Coast Class 91 run in detail, but the rarity value alone merits a more detailed reprise of events.
There was a certain irony in the selection of No. 91130, which proudly bore the name Lord Mayor of Newcastle, when events would lead to the diversion of the train away from that proud city. The tour brochure contained the question concerning the Class 91, “Which way round will it be leading?” causing many on board correctly to predict it would be blunt end first.
Indeed that was the case, giving many linesiders the opportunity en route for unusual shots – not only of aClass 91 ‘blunt end leading’, but also at the head of aMk.1 set, which would be rare enough whichever way the loco was pointing.
The ensemble was eased from Mossend for a ‘set-down’ stop at Motherwell to the news there would be no dinner that night and no food at all on the final day of the tour. For those hoping for fireworks, there was some disappointment as the loco was treated gently over the three miles to Wishaw, taking nearly 5min and then sticking at 75mph. There is a 60mph permanent speed restriction
