LMS Rebuilt Scot No 46115 Scots Guardsman made its first run on the Hadrian route for Railway Touring Company, heading from Hellifield via Settle to Carlisle, then over the Tyne Valley route and the East Coast main line to York. The wet and windy weather, combined with the heavy Autumn leaf fall, did not promise well for the climbing ahead, but the Scot charged away from Hellifield, reaching line speed (60 mph) well before Settle Junction and the start of the climb. Speed had dropped to 49 by Settle, and to a minimum of 22 in the Stainforth area, where rail conditions are notorious at this time of year. Speed rose to 35 on the level stretch after Helwith Bridge, and she slogged up from Horton to Ribblehead at between 25 and 30. A lively run down from Ais Gill to Appleby and a short water stop at Appleby saw us early at the outskirts of Carlisle. We departed Carlisle on time, closely following an NXEC HST and a stopping train. This was to be our undoing, as a signal check on the 1 in 107 between How Mill and Brampton brought us to stand in a heavily forested cutting. Linesider's YouTube video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54xxot-37qw shows the manual sanding of the line and the painfully slow restart, which left us half an hour late at Brampton. However, we were only 15 minutes late leaving the water stop at Low Fell. After a gentle start up the East Coast main line, the sparks really began to fly after Durham, with several impressive bursts of speed followed by braking on reaching the 75 mph maximum. There was clearly plenty of power in reserve! South of Darlington, the running was more restrained, but we hit the maximum again near Tollerton, bringing a fine end to a dramatic day's running.