With a 05.18 departure from Inverness, my alarm was set and checked for a 04.30 rise (not unusual when coming down from my hilltop lair in Buxton to pick up railtours around the country). However, at 05.18 I woke with horror, checking my watch to confirm the dreaded news! Had I known it and, had it been 15 years ago, with the stock not actually in the station yet, I might have made a bid to catch the tour and had a decent chance of making it from my digs on Union Street opposite the station. No chance nowadays!

Rather to my surprise, Google was unable to offer any viable buses to the Far North; the Stagecoach X99 only offers two trips each way to Thurso, Wick and Scrabster and one on Sundays - there are four trains. In the week the first is 10.40 (in Wick around 13.40) and on Saturdays the first bus is not until 14.10!

A taxi from the rank would have been £289! However, the 07.00 ScotRail service from Inverness arrives Wick 11.31, for a 13.25 departure by our tour. The only sensible solution, then, was to remove my loco-hauled hat and cast aside my vow never to take a DMU service north of Inverness. 158712 duly set off north on the 07.00 Inverness to Thurso and all seemed fine, a few minutes lost at Muir of Ord, awaiting the inbound early morning service from Ardgay, itself delayed at Tain by our railtour heading north.

A few minutes at Dingwall were anticipated passing the 06.16 from Lairg for the same reason but it left, then we didn't. The conductor came down and told us that the rear engine had shut down and the only option was to return us to Inverness while Control attempted to procure forward transport (one would not want to try Dingwall to Wick and back again on one engine!). A couple of Dingwall taxi firms were tried but politely declined such a long job without cars on the road at that time in the morning.

Passengers were met at Inverness with sincere apologies, confirmation that no road transport could be raised and, with two £3 vouchers for Costa on the station, we were to either wait for the 10.41 departure or give up for the day (there were some walkers whose plans would need a rewrite, as well as couples on day trips and others visiting friends and relatives). Resigned to 2H63 at 10.41, I realised on paper I could reach Georgemas Junction, where it was booked to cross the tour and did. I knew from TRACKmaps that Georgemas Junction only has one platform in use nowadays but didn't know if any of the old infrastructure remained that might facilitate a desperate leap. A text message to our redoubtable train manager (Kev Windscreen Wiper Adlam) confirmed that was a no-no, how about Scotscalder, the next station south? With my retired train service controller's hat on, it was confirmed by text that our return tour, 1Z38 would call additionally at Scotscalder to uplift a passenger alighting off the 10.41 to Wick.

P1 at Georgemas Junction and the station footbridge were removed in 2012 when Direct Rail Services constructed the new freight terminal on the Up side. The platform, on the passing loop, was little used then by passenger trains to and from Inverness as they no longer split at the station for Wick and Thurso. In loco hauled days, a train from Wick to Inverness would pass the portion from Thurso waiting in the remaining platform, then propel back to it. (So many older participants will have done the loop before!)

The freight terminal was used to transfer containers on to lorries which took them by road to Thurso, Wick and by ferry to Orkney. In the early 2000s, English, Welsh & Scottish Railway operated a freight train for Safeway supermarket (RIP), taking containers from Mossend to Georgemas. The freight terminal has also been used for taking nuclear material from decommissioning Dounreay to Sellafield.

158710 duly took me north on 2H63 and I settled back to reacquaint myself with the scenery north of Dingwall (not seen by train since Dec 1989 and April that year north of Rogart). The weather duly obliged with all sorts of lighting conditions, highlighting coast and moor at their changeable best.

Deposited at Scotscalder, I was somewhat taken aback to find the small assembly of photographers already knew of the special stop-order. Work gets around fast in the Far North. A fellow BLS member holidaying in the area had found out and arrived with partner in tow for a ride from Scotscalder to Brora (agreed in advance with the Train Manager)! Examining the station area revealed the slate tablet marking an Ian Allan / Association of Railway Preservation Societies heritage award, presented by Sir Bob Reid in 1993 (Chairman of British Railways Board at the time) to the then owners of the station house to mark the quality of its restoration. Once a holiday let, the property is now a private residence.

Prominent on the platform were structures erected by ScotRail, including a substantial waiting shelter (with only perch 'seats'), needed as the wind was becoming a bit sharp! Within the shelter was the usual touch screen information board and, 'under maintenance', the equipment for the push button request stop alert. This was accompanied by the usual next train monitor standing on the platform and all supported by a tall mobile signal mast. I couldn't help thinking that, with the platform at Altnabreac being effectively the residents' front lawn there, this furniture would not have been so welcome.

With a text from Kev advising impending Georgemas Junction departure, all ears strained against the wind in a vain attempt to catch the sound of 37403 starting the climb. Sadly, although the chill breeze seemed to come from most angles, one quarter it refused to blow in from was east of north, so we were denied that audial delight. 15 minutes later (DMU running time is five minutes or so) and I was starting to worry as the local landscape offered little view down the line but then a wave from the overbridge foretold the arrival of 37403. A quick trot to the brake coach, scramble aboard, handshakes and away!

An operationally interesting consequence of the failure of 2H61 at Dingwall was that the first Up service, 06.18 out of Wick terminated at Lairg, presumably as the booked crew change there with the 07.00 from Inverness. It then returned back to Wick in service in the 2H61 path, although I suspect southbound passengers were dropped off somewhere more accessible for either road transport or waited for the 08.02 Wick to Inverness. As a consequence, resources remained in the Far North to cover the 12.34 departure from Wick. I should add that I'm just a bit miffed to have to return to the Far North to cover Scotscalder to Thurso and Wick for the millennium and, of course, missing out on Georgemas Up Loop.