Bookending our 'Because We Can Two' Scottish 3-day tour, the stock moves to and from the tour were run as passenger moves. 'Thunderbirds Are Go!' was the outward stock move from Burton-on-Trent to Bo'ness, carrying passengers between Derby and Linlithgow. Booked for a Class 57, rare track was thrown in to entice the track bashers - of which I am not one. I was there for the traction - and at the very reasonable price of £69 for over 300 miles of haulage, a civilised start and finish time, I was tempted to book immediately it was advertised.

57303 had been announced a few days prior to the tour (subject to the usual caveats) and this duly produced on the day. As this was a winner for haulage my decision to book was already well rewarded. I joined the train at Derby to maximise mileage and I gave myself a good hour to be in position before departure to allow for any number of the all-too-usual farces which are now a daily occurrence on our broken railway. Having elected to photograph the stock arriving into Derby P2 from P4, the day got off to a bad start when my photo was completely prevented by a Birmingham unit departing at exactly the same time. Oh, how I laughed! So, a quick dash over to get on board and we departed bang on time in comfortable 1st Class Mk2 Riviera Trains stock in British Rail Corporate Blue and Minerva Grey livery.

At Clay Cross North Jn we crossed over to the Down Erewash and, after waiting for a late CrossCountry service to pass at Chesterfield South Jn, we crossed back to the Down Main for our pickup stop in Chesterfield P1. Then, in true BLS fashion, we were crossing over again onto the Down Barrow Hill at Chesterfield North Jn to take the 'Old Road' throughout. The section north of Beighton Jn was new track for me and, as someone who has lived in South Yorkshire all my life, most interesting to do.

We were just a few minutes down running out onto the Main line at Masborough Station North Jn but then had quite a stagger along the Swinton & Knottingley Joint line behind a late running all shacks unit which preceded us from Aldwarke. We headed down onto the West Riding & Grimsby Joint line at South Kirkby Jn and via Hemsworth Down Doncaster Passenger Loop nonstop. The slow meander allowed the unit to pull away as we took a right at Hare Park Jn. This took me onto my next section of new route to Crofton West Jn and we went right again at Calder Bridge Jn to Turners Lane Jn, to stand for a short while waiting for a Lincoln to Leeds unit to precede. We should have been in front of it but, as we were now 8 min late, had lost our path. Once out onto the Down Normanton line, the unit having turned off in front of us at Altofts Jn, we sped up and were soon storming along through Castleford, Milford and through Church Fenton, where we were back on schedule reaching York P5 two min early.

We were booked to stand at York for 13 min, so this gave people chance to stretch their legs and leave the train to take some photos. Very appropriately, 66190 'Martin House Hospice' had been positioned alongside in bay P6 and made a nice photo with 91119 on 1Y84 1202 York to King's Cross in the adjacent bay P7. I made my way over the bridge to P3 to take a better photo of our train where there were enthusiasts with the same idea. With everyone back on board, we made a right time departure.



A high speed run ensued along the 'racing stretch' of the ECML to our next diversion into Darlington South Down Passenger Loop. We had to dwell here for half an hour while four passenger services passed by before making our next booked pickup in P4. After a very brief stop, we were away again for another high speed run, through Durham nonstop on the Down Fast, and staying on the Main / Fast line into Newcastle P2, our final pick-up stop. Further high-speed running saw us passing Tweedmouth seven minutes up on the timings and then a slow entry to the much sought-after Down Goods Loop (the reason many had booked) at Berwick-upon-Tweed to stand again for around half an hour for three more services to precede us. Away a minute early and a beautiful run along the coast brought us into Drem Down Passenger Loop for one train to pass, then on to Edinburgh Waverley. An on time arrival was achieved via the scissors crossover from P7 to P10, which were not cut out of the route.

A considerable number of participants left the train at Edinburgh but those carrying on to the bitter end were treated to more unusual track. Departure from Waverley P10 three min down via Line 'W' brought us to Princes Street Gardens, where we crossed over to the Down North, through Haymarket then back to the Down South at Haymarket Central Jn. At Newbridge it was into the Down Passenger Loop, again for three trains to pass us, leaving a couple of minutes late after a slightly slow signal clearance to exit after the last of these. And so to journey's end at Linlithgow, after 312¼ miles, a mere two minutes late arriving, which surely has to be a credit to all the operators on the day, as well as the scheduling team. Participants soon alighted and after only a few minutes the ECS was away to Bo'ness.

All that remained for me to do was head to Edinburgh. When I booked, the finish time should have allowed a return to Doncaster on 1E27, the 18.30 to King's Cross off Waverley but due to shortage of Hitachi IETs - yes, those IETs which were going to have a robust availability regime applied to them (it happens on GWR too with Turbos and Electrostars substituting) - this train had been removed from the timetable for several days, leaving the 19.36 the only option. As a result, I did the only sensible thing on the way back to Edinburgh and baled at Haymarket for 1.2 miles of HST haulage on an Inter7City set from Aberdeen. Then it was three hours or so of buttock numbing DfT procured travel later and I was back where I started that morning in Doncaster - anyone for an all-day Azuma tour?