Part 2 (May - June)

47786 'Roy Castle OBE' arrives at Kirkcaldy with SRPS Railtours' 1Z55 0540 Glenrothes - Fort William charter (04/05/2013)

47786 waits time at Crianlarich with 1Z55. Unfortunately the sunshine had given way to torrential rain by the time we reached Fort William (04/05/2013)

The ultimate destination of the tour was Mallaig, but in order to pass the Royal Scotsman at Glenfinnan, we had to lose a locomotive and three coaches! Having run round the shortened train, 47786 waits to depart from Fort William with 1Z56 1229 to Fort William via Mallaig (04/05/2013)

Having been detached from the stock, 47786 prepares to run round its train on arrival at Mallaig (04/05/2013)

47786 is pictured again during the run-round at Mallaig. There can't have been too many occasions when a '47' has performed this particular manoeuvre as charter trains are usually top-and-tailed to accommodate the maximum nine-coach train length (04/05/2013)

Having run round its train, 47786 pushes the stock back into the platform at Mallaig before returning to Fort William with 1Z56 (04/05/2013)

The outward leg of 1Z56 had crossed 47804 + 47237 top-and-tailing the 'Royal Scotsman' at Glenfinnan, and the latter is seen here from the passing train in Fort William yard with the empty stock as we arrived back from Mallaig (04/05/2013)

47760 had been on the rear of the otward leg, and after re-attaching the three additional coaches handled the return 1Z57 1640 Fort William - Glenrothes throughout. The train is pictured here waiting to cross a northbound ScotRail service at Arrochar & Tarbet (04/05/2013)

Arrochar seminar! Despite the obvious alternative of '580 on a Norwich - Edinburgh NENTA, there was always the possibility that this might be the last visit of a '47' to Mallaig on anything but the 'Royal Scotsman' and a few of us thought it well worth making the effort (04/05/2013)

47580 'County of Essex' passes Hall Lane crossing at Newthorpe on the approach to Micklefield with 5Z59 1245 Norwich - Carnforth ecs move. The parting of the clouds after a particularly grey couple of hours was near-miraculous on this occasion (05/05/2013)

The locos and stock had been used on the previous day's marathon NENTA charter from Norwich to Edinburgh, and 47826 is seen here bringing up the rear (05/05/2013)

47760 pauses at Edinburgh Waverley with North East Railtours' 1Z71 0530 Newcastle - Fort William charter. Two trips up the West Highland in the space of three days really can't be bad (06/05/2013)

47367 waits time at Weybourne with the 1415 from Sheringham to Holt during a running day at the North Norfolk Railway (18/05/2013)

47367 awaits departure from Sheringham with the 1545 to Holt (18/05/2013)

Another view of 47367 at Sheringham before working the 1545 to Holt. By the end of the afternoon the loco had successfuly completed six return trips along the line (18/05/2013)

IN a chiange to the orignal plan, 47117 had the honour of working the weekend's final round trip to Leicester and is seen here backing onto the 1625 departure at Loughborough (19/05/2013)

47376 awaits departure from Cheltenham Race Course with the 1205 to Toddington during its first running day of the season. I believe this is the first time the loco has worked a timetabled passenger train out of this location since 2010 after ongoing repairs to the two serious landslips at Gotherington and Winchcombe. It's good to be back... (21/05/2013)

47760 waits to depart from Carlisle with Compass Tours' 1Z63 1357 return charter to Nuneaton via the Cumbrian Coast (25/05/2013)

47580 had worked the outward leg from Lincoln via Nottingham, Leicester, Nuneaton, WCML and S&C and is pictured here on the rear of 1Z63 at Carlisle. It also later worked forward from Carnforth to Nottingham via Skipton and Chesterfield after the train reversed (25/05/2013)

Well, once again I managed to pick just about the only spot in Yorkshire where the sun wasn't shining as 47580 made its way back to Carnforth. 'County of Essex' is seen here just north of Skipton with 5Z63 1224 empty stock move from Derby off the previous day's Compass charter (26/05/2013)

After arriving on the rear of Compass Tours' 1Z37 0842 charter from Southport, 47760 is pictured at Holyhead as the empty stock is hsunted into the station yard (29/05/2013)

The bright sunshine in Holyhead lasted until mid-afternoon and it was considerably more gloomy by the time 47760 shunted the train back out of the yard (29/05/2013)

47580 'County of Essex' had worked the outward leg, and is seen here descending into the station with the empty stock for the return journey (29/05/2013)

47760 waits to depart from Holyhead with 1Z38 1630 to Southport. The return leg included the bonus of a round trip along the Conwy Valley branch to Blaenau Ffestiniog (29/05/2013)