Killingworth
Established Member
From what I hear it was West Coast that approaching Farron not the other way round. It's WCRC that should be getting the praise not Farron
I've also heard similar, but it was the coming together that probably ensured it happened. There must have been encouragement from somewhere high up and outside Northern. WCRC have rolling stock nearby doing nothing and crews available. A PR disaster for Northern, but a PR victory for WCRC. One day the full story will be told.
However, I do see the green lobby's point about employing two old diesel locomotives, each capable of pulling loads of 8-10 carriages with relative ease, on a 3 coach train. I know, there's no release possible for the leading loco to run round the train for a return trip. When steam left the Lake District DMU's didnt need such a facility. Push-pull units and reliable modern compliant DMUs aren't stock items for rail heritage based groups, and certainly not available for regular and reliable daily running to cope with very occasional emergencies like this.