As it became more difficult to get loco haulage on service trains and the new track I required was getting more difficult to find my interest turned to railtours. The Coal Scuttler was one of the best railtours I travelled on featuring some Scottish and Midlands freight branches and featuring 16 different freight locos from 5 different classes over 2 days plus a 47/8. This was when railtour traction offered lots of diversity and this was probably the heyday of multi-engine tours.

A full itinerary is available on the superb Six Bells Jn website.

Saturday 25 May 1991

It was not my best idea ever but the day before the tour I was on nights so did not have time to go home just went straight from work to catch the tour. I met the rest of the tour team at Warrington. Because of coming straight off nights I had a little time to kill and managed to get a bit of 31 haulage between Warrington and Runcorn East before the arrival of the tour. The tour arrived in Warrington behind 47818 and was booked for a loco change. 20117+20121 backed onto the train but they were declared a failure so were replaced by 20175+20131. We left 50 minutes late and continued to lose time as we headed north over the Lakeland fells.

At Carlisle another loco change this time the mixed pairing of 37245+26038. These loco took us through to Ayr Harbour Jn where they were replaced by 20138+20124 on one end and 26007+26002 on the other. We then went for a trip done the Ayrshire freight branches of Killoch and Chalmerston. It is always quite fun going down freight only lines as the locals cannot believe what they are seeing, a passenger train passing their house which only normally sees freight. The train continued to lose time as the day went on and we finally arrived in Ayr for the evening break over one and a half hours late.

26002+26007 on arrival at Ayr 25/05/91

We had 4 hours before the departure of the train at 22:00 so we found the local chip shop and then settled down in the local video bar on a Saturday night. These were a relatively new innovation brought about by the arrival of MTV. We had consumed quite a few drinks and kept feeding the video duke box with 50 pence pieces and playing “The Size of a Cow” the The Wonderstuff repeatedly and our group of 12 singing along in the corner of the pub, much to the disapproval of the locals. A very strange but memorable evening.

The train headed back to Carlisle on time with the 37 and 26 pairing again.

Sunday 26 May 1991

Shortly after midnight at Carlisle and another loco change 20013+20141 for the run back over Shap Fell. In the early 90s railtours were not equipped with generator cars to provide train heat when freight locos were being used. We had not had any heat of the train all day and the temperature was dropping and not helped by one member of the coach hanging out the window. I was feeling very tired at this stage because of working nights the previous night and I had had little sleep during the day.

20013+20141 at Carlisle 26/05/91

The train arrived at Preston for a further loco change this time 56018. This took us over the Pennines to Derby. The train was continuing to lose time as we went along. This would be recovered at Derby as the train was booked to stand for 3 hours.

We thought the time would be recovered but this was not to be the case the second 56 56015 had been delayed on it’s way from Toton so over an hour and a half late leaving Derby. Arriving in Coalville an hour late.

At Coalville it was a visit to the Open Day and this is where things went from bad to worse. The platform was very small with a lot of trains using it including another Hertfordshire tour and the shuttle trains. We finally departed over 3 hours late with 60057 and 60032 on the front and 56048 had to be used to pull the stock out of the platform at Coalville.

At Nuneaton a further loco change took place and 56021 took over to Coventry and Birmingham New St where we left the train.

We continued home via Manchester for some well earned rest.

This tour was superb despite all the late running.

Traction Log: