Home»All my photos»2009 Railway Photographs»Scots Guardsman on the Sunday CME 2 August 2009

Today saw the welcome return of Rebuilt Scot 4-6-0 No 46115 Scots Guardsman to the Settle-Carlisle line for only its third round trip. The weather was fine and mostly sunny and with a clear run through Settle Junction and a dry rail, the climb to Ribblehead varied between 30 and 40 mph all the way, followed by some lively running down to Carlisle. The return journey saw some more bursts of speed between signal checks on the way to Appleby. However, with a clear road up to Ais Gill, the Scot pulled competently but did not manage the speeds up Mallerstang that she had achieved in snowy conditions in February. But an afternoon of sunshine had seen the beautiful Scot looking her best, and giving a good overall performance for the summer Sunday trippers on the 60% full train.