Sometimes we feel that a single line entry on one of the Diary Pages doesn't really tell the full story re some of the more unusual workings,
incidents and failures, so this page exists and will be expanded over time.

"27105 lead to Cowlairs and proceeded round the curve towards the West Highland Line, with 40067 banking. 40067 became the train engine and we proceeded via the East curve towards Dundee. So I had 40067 round all 3 sides of the triangle within 75 mins."

The 20's blew up at Cheltenham,They managed to crawl there way to Ashcurch sidings to clear the line and wait for a rescue engine,
which turned out to be a peak.

Alot of people stayed on the failed 20's hoping Gloucester would send out the other pair of 20's to rescue them,and still make E73 at
BNS.  I prefered the the other option.  37123 on 1E73 (1745 Cardiff - Sheffield) with a rake of coffins up the Lickey... couldn't be turned
down.  1E73 left before 1M60 arrived with a peak... there was alot of unhappy people on 1M60 that evening.

Stalled climbing to Cowlairs whilst being banked by 27016.  Assisted rear by 1044 departure.  Formation was 47+7 coaches+27+27+5 coaches.   47274 replaced by 37151 at Eastfield.

A fine performance by Warspite.  Out via Castleford, everything was going fine until we coasted through Water Orton with no
noise coming from the loco! We came to a stand at Washwood Heath and after 20 minutes 56 066 appeared from Saltley and was
bolted on the front. This ensemble was replaced at BNS by a peak (45 069?).

1S60 arrived at Peterborough where the guard refused to take the train forward due to a
defective boiler on Ballymoss. The only boilered engines available were 25 075 or 31 226. After a wait of 45 minutes
(the train could have been worked  to Doncaster in this time), Ballymoss was detached and 31 226 bolted on. My
notes give a time of 38 minutes between Peterborough and Grantham; a good performance considering the train was load 16!!

Sunday engineering work. Move consisted of being dragged the last ¼ mile into the station so probably worked many other trains that day.

Sunday engineering work. Move consisted of being dragged the last ¼ mile into the station so probably worked many other trains that day.

Included RDB977091 in formation, which was an experimental  Leyland National style hauled coach.

The stock ran from Exeter to Exmouth as a service train with 31121 and 47561 assisting on the rear (previous day), and returned to Exeter Central in reverse, where 31121 was removed from the rear, 47561 continuing to Blackpool on the Exmouth Round Table Charter.

No-heat 47056 also worked into Blackpool on a charter from Taunton.  However, on the outward trip the second
to rear coach was 'steam-heat only' thus leaving this, and the rear dual-heat coach, in the cold.  Not so bad,
but on the return this rendered the front coach the only heated coach on the train. 

The 'solution'?...  As the trains returned overnight, send 47561 back to Taunton providing heat all the way.
Then use 47056 on the Exmouth as far as Crewe, where a steam-heat loco was to take over. We arrive at Crewe
to see boilered 47194 depart with the Taunton having wrongly replaced 47561.  So no loco for us, after a
delay we set off through the cold early hours for New St... where steam was again promised... and it was...
47426, boiler very operative. This took us to Exmouth, 33007 assisted on the rear from Exeter St.Davids, and
led back again. 47426 was cut off at Exeter Central (not allowed to top'n'tail down the 1 in 36), being reattached at St.Davids to take the train to Plymouth arrival about 0800ish.

Marvellous.

  Peter White.

Ran as ECS between Lancaster and Preston due to a defective brake vehicle.

After 47432 failed. Train was pushed in clear by 47564 on a following service and 20206 then commandeered for the run to Edinburgh.

An Axminster Round Table tour originally planned for March 84 and to return via ECML, it eventually ran on the last summer Saturday and returned via a less ambitious route.  An early start was made with 47152 steaming away, to our first loco change at Wolves. 47475 sat in the bay, but was for a Salop diagram. Now, that summer the 08.20 Liverpool-Paignton had turned into something of a novelty train, and on the last Saturday a big finale was planned with no less than 25060 & 25235 in the frame. However, much to the chagrin of everyone except us, the Rats ended up on our charter for a fair old tour of the North, before giving way to 45060 at Derby, which steamed back to Devon, via Bristol and Yeovil.

Routes:
47152 Plymouth-Wolves: Exeter(run round), Yeovil, Castle Cary, Westbury, Bath, Bristol PWay, Worcs SH, Bromsgrove,
Camp Hill, Birm NS, Tipton.

25060+25235 Wolves-Halifax: Stafford, Crewe, Warrington BQ, Earlestown, Eccles, Man.Vic, Cheetham Hill Junc, Moston, Rochdale, Hebden Bridge, Halifax(run round)

25235+25060 Halifax-Derby: Hebden Bridge, Copy Pit, Blackburn, Preston, Carnforth(Break)....Carnforth East Junc, Wennington, Skipton, Whitehall Junc, Woodlesford, Normanton, Oakenshaw.Sth.Junc, Cudworth, Rotherham, Barrow Hill, Chesterfield.

45060 Derby-Plymouth: Camp Hill, Cheltenham, Bristol Pway, Bath, Westbury, Castle Cary,Yeovil, Exeter(run round)

I remember standing on platform 1 at Stafford after 47219 had failed and seeing the 50 run through light engine to Crewe due to
a communications failure, it was about 45 minutes before it returned.   Booked departure time for the return should have been
1658 from Plymouth.  Also formed 2M60 from Stoke(2308)  - Crewe local timetabled service due to adverse weather conditions.

Shortage of portion locos this day so train didn't split and the whole thing went to Edinburgh.

"I actually covered the train that day because of the 25.  The Platform Supervisor at Derby refused to let any of us on the train and it
was let out in front of the 20’s and ran empty to Long Eaton.  ...So the train should really be called something like the 0939 Long Eaton
– Skegness?"

"This was one of the all-time fixes - 288 was utterly huge at the time and came into the West Mids on a liner from East Anglia
on the Wednesday night.  Bizarrely, a "diagramming error" (yeah right) sent a Bescot 47 back to Anglia on the return working,
and 288 - with spare 47/4's at Saltley - mysteriously found its way to Coventry to work 1O74 - a set which included coffins, on a
very warm day.  Hmm...".

"Train diverted via Gloucester due to lineside fire near Severn Tunnel. Train terminated at Newport, late running and short turnaround."

"(no locos at Reading, 100 late from Oxford, run round avoided by simultaneous arrival at Reading of 1M23), no detail of cause of delay"

"arrived Birmingham NS 15” late with 81007 topping an expired 85005. Both locos were signalled out of New St but then 81007 failed as well, I didn’t stay around to see what the outcome was!"

"I was on this train 304009 2G76 0838 Manchester Piccadilly-Birmingham New Street.

On arrival at Wolverhampton control decided to run this unit to Walsall and on to Birmingham from there because the points at the
south end of Wolverhampton station were frozen. When the train arrived at Pleck Junction the signalman sent the train onto a
non-electrified line 37 211 eventually arrived from Bescot to drag the train back to Wolverhampton where it terminated at 1145,
103 minutes after originally departing."

"I was there.  20 029 failed at Skegness during the shunting, apparently they managed to pull of one of the pipes!  029 was dumped at
 Skegness and 042 worked unaided Skegness to Nottingham, putting in a storming performance at one stage hitting 77mph with load 8
 along the straight from Boston to Sleaford.

 At Notts 042 was replaced by 20182 (new one) and 20157 to take the train forward to Sheffield.  These got as far as Tibshelf sidings
 where 157 promptly shut down!  182 then carried on alone to Chesterfield where the driver requested that we be routed via the old road
 (Barrow Hill) to Sheffield as he wasn't sure a single 20 could manage Bradway bank with a dead 20 and load 8 in tow.  He was however
 refused and 182 managed to complete the journey at little more than a walking pace all the way up the bank with the engine wide open
 and all heads out the windows!  Storming thrash, storming days."

" - the train was advertised on a through platform, so we got on with loads of normal passengers, no on engine on at this time. Then for some reason they shunted it into one of the bay platforms with all passengers still on board."

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