Waverley Railtour 1965


		The Warwickshire Railway Society ran some excellent rail tours in the 1960's. Some were very ambitious in their itineraries, and ran rather late as a consequence. One such railtour ran on 11th December 1965., the "Waverley Railtour". And the highlight of the tour was to be the run over the Waverley route from Carlisle to Edinburgh with an A2 pacific, followed by an A4 from Edinburgh to York. The tour started and finished at Birmingham New Street, which, by late 1965 was a no go area for steam. So we had a diesel to and from Duddeston Road Junction, Saltley.

		Black 5 no 45134 was to be our loco to Leeds, and we were away from Duddeston Road Junction at 7.23am, 4 minutes late. The locomotive ran well, but any time gained was lost by signal checks, and so we were 12 minutes down by Leeds. It was here that things began to go wrong. A problem with the Buffet car. My memory of what was wrong is rather vague, but I seem to recall that no one could get into it. Someone had either forgotten the keys, or brought the wrong ones.And by the time we were away, we were 32 minutes down. Never mind, we had a Jubilee up front. 45697 Achilles". 32 mins late from Leeds, the hoped for good running over the Settle & Carlisle line never materialized, and we staggered up to Blea Moor tunnel at 23 mph. And so we were 46 minutes late into Carlisle, arriving at 1.51pm.

		We now found ourselves with another problem. We now had to follow, rather than precede, the 1.40pm Carlisle to Edinburgh service, which stopped at every station as far as Galashiels. It was 2.02pm before 60528 Tudor Minstrel departed from Carlisle, so no doubt we would soon catch up with the slower train ahead. But the crew decided to take things easily, and we fell to 21 mph beyond Riccarton. But then we were checked at Shankend, and were 69 minutes late at Hawick, where we took water.. Thereafter, we ran to Edinburgh, mainly downhill, losing another 3 minutes. Arrival time was 5.02pm. Here, some very smart work saw 60528 removed, and A4 no 60034 Lord Faringdon couple up. The intention was to be away ahead of the 5.08pm Edinburgh to Leeds. But Waverley held us, and allowed the 5.08pm out ahead. This effectively killed off any chance of time recovery on to Newcastle, since the 5.08pm called at Dunbar and Berwick. So we left Edinburgh at 5.16pm, 69 minutes late. Our driver judged things nicely, and avoided any signal checks to Newcastle. But onwards through Durham and Northallerton we suffered more delays, both from signal checks and permanent way slowings. So we arrived at York at 9.26pm, now 82 minutes late.

		Here, our final steam loco of the day took over. Class V2 2-6-2 no 60886. Departing York at 9.39pm, 88 minutes late, we thought that things couldn't get much worse. But they could. A signal check immediately after leaving York, a crossover slack at Church Fenton, lengthy delays through Ferrybridge caused by a derailment, and more p.w. slowings before our Chesterfield stop. 103 minutes late arriving, followed by a 14 minute stop, meant that we were 109 minutes late leaving. More checks expanded the lateness to 115 minutes by Derby. The final miles were run with only one delay, a stop caused by a signal failure near Tamworth. So we were 112 minutes late at Duddestone Road, where 60886 came off, and a diesel came on.

		I didn't record the final time of arrival at Birmingham New Street, but I suspect that our 112 minutes lateness had expanded to about 2 hours. All very frustrating, and mainly due to the Buffet Car problem at Leeds.