THE heady days of a ‘Deltic+8’ returned to King’s Cross on April 21 with the short notice arrangement of LSL’s No. D9000 (55022) Royal Scots Grey working a one-way charter to Edinburgh, writes John Heaton.
This was a proving trip for the newly-overhauled ‘Deltic’, involving an empty run from Crewe to Hornsey via the WCML top-and-tail with Class 90 No. 90001 Royal Scot.
The ECML was in considerable disarray following a ‘police incident’ near Darlington earlier in the day, resulting in many Newcastle and Scottish trains being cancelled up to the 14.00 departure. In an inspired public relations initiative, around 50 of the backlog were invited onto the 13.15 special.
The ‘90’ at the rear was to prove useful in what became an ill-fated run. One of the two ‘Deltic’ engines shut down before the train had left the inner-city suburbs, resulting in slow running to a recessing stop at Newark Northgate, from where the electric assisted to Newcastle, 96min late.