Bury Bolton Street Depot, Lancashire, October 2014
The sun rose on a cold, but cloudless and sunny day in the Lancashire hills. Bury was a town just outside of Manchester, and a place well known amongst railway enthusiasts, as it was the home of the East Lancashire Railway, one of the younger startups at twenty seven years old (formed 1987) but nevertheless a big player in the field of railway preservation. They had their works at Bolton Street, a short way to the south of the station of the same name and very close to the old Metrolink station of Bury Interchange. This works, however, was divided in two by what was termed the 'Berlin wall'. On the other side was the home of Riley and Sons engineering, a workshop and engineering firm run by Ian Riley, a well respected engineer in the field, as well as a major owner of locomotives alongside men such as Jeremy Hosking and John Cameron. On this day, two locomotives sat within the shed. The first of them was a Britannia Class locomotive, or 7MT to use the official designation. These had been introduced in 1951 to work the high speed passenger trains out of Liverpool Street, but the 55 strong class had eventually found all across the British rail network. This locomotive was the class leader, 70000 Britannia, and had been back in mainline traffic for a few years alongside classmate 70013 Oliver Cromwell (which sadly was not available today).
The other locomotive was an engine of considerably older pedigree. It had been built in 1923 to the A1 specification of the LNER, and had worked top link expresses on the East Coast Mainline all the way through to withdrawal in 1963. It had then been saved by Alan Pegler, gone through a number of owners, and then finally wound up in the National Collection, having only just emerged from a mammoth overhaul that autumn.
Its name? 60103 Flying Scotsman.
That morning, Ian Riley and Pete Townend entered the works and glanced about them at all the work going on. The engines were simmering gently, and had had their fires lit a few hours earlier. The smokeboxes had been cleaned out, and the engines were fully prepped for operation by the depot crew.
"You've got a great setup here Ian," Pete said.
"Thanks," Ian replied. "The engine crews are yet to arrive, though. Only one crew at the moment, as the trip doesn't start until we get to Settle."
Suddenly, the shed door burst open, and two men ran into the shed. Both were fully dressed in boilersuits and jackets, to protect them from the heat of the footplate, and one of them had short brown hair and eyes, and seemed to be the more experienced of the two.
The other had long, messy brown hair and blue eyes, and wore a pair of red glasses that stood out on his face. "Sorry we're late!" he called, in a distinct American accent. "We didn't hear the alarm!"
"You mean you didn't," said the other man, speaking in a rough Midlands accent. "Sorry Ian, Jimmy here decided to be a sleepyhead and not get up on time."
"We've still got plenty of time, Tom," Ian replied, waving to the engines. "Both are prepped and ready to go now. Have you learned your route and timings?"
"Yes sir," Tom replied. "Tow 60103 and 14 MK1s dead to Hellifield, where Katrina and Stephanie will join us and take over. We will then run to Settle to pick up passengers, and finally run to Carlisle, where we shall rest for the night."
"It ought to be fairly simple," Jimmy replied. "We got plenty of power on the locos, and the grade isn't too steep."
"Don't be so sure," Pete told him. "Those gradients are tough, and these engines don't fire like the oil burners you're used to. And don't speed, ORR dislikes it when we run too fast, and the engines don't like it either."
"Why is the name and number wrong?" Jimmy asked, pointing to the A3 pacific.
Ian facepalmed. "The engine has been renamed and renumbered as classmate 60077 The White Knight for this trip. I thought I'd explained all of this."
Just then, the depot shunter sounded its whistle to indicate it was preparing to tow 60077 out of the depot. Tom took this as the opportunity to hop onto 70000's footplate, and waved to Jimmy. "Come on! You don't want to be left behind, do you?"
Jimmy sprinted across the depot floor and hopped into the cab, moving to the left. He then saw Tom staring at him. "What?"
"Fireman on the right, driver on the left," Tom said. "This is not the Great Western. And one more thing. Tie your hair back, the last thing you want is it getting caught in the firebox."
After all was ready, Tom reset the cutoff to -75%, released the brakes, and sounded the whistle. 70000 began to back up beautifully, steam shooting from the cylinder cocks and rolling gently from the chimney. The engine rolled into 60077 gently, and the depot worker coupled the two engines together. With a whistle, the formation moved forward, and once they were onto the East Lancashire Railway, they coupled up to the coaches. Due to the nature of the depot, the train needed to pull the coaches back out onto the mainline, and then run around at Castleford. They could then run the correct direction down the Hope Valley line to Sheffield, and onto the Settle and Carlisle.
The maneuvre was completed moments later, and the whistle was sounded once more. Britannia dug into the rails as it departed towards Manchester Picadilly.
"Carlisle, here we come!" Tom called, looking out of the cab. "Come on Britannia, give us a spectacular performance." He glanced over his shoulder. "Jimmy, keep the fire hot, and prime the injectors! If possible, avoid a release of the safety valves!"
"Roger that, sir!" Jimmy replied, as the train roared through Manchester Victoria, and onto the mainline towards Sheffield (having run via Manchester Picadilly in the meantime).
Meanwhile, in Hawes, Yorkshire, several friends gathered to have breakfast. The Canterlot Movie Club was there, as was Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pear Butter, Cookie Crumbles, and Cheerilee. It was a somewhat long story as to how they had got there. Put simply, the Crusaders had won a competition winning them seats on a special trip from Settle to Carlisle and return, with all lodging and flights paid for. The only thing they needed to do was pick a parent and another person to bring with them. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had picked their respective siblings and mothers to join them on this journey, and there they were eating together, as family and friends.
"So, who wants to be right behind the engine?" Rainbow Dash asked her friends with a smile. "It's the best place to be to catch the sound, and we'll be getting a syncopated beat thanks to the two engines working together."
"Why?" Cookie asked, eating a pancake. Mercifully, Cheerilee had offered to cook for them, and had firmly prevented Sweetie Belle from doing so, as they would otherwise be eating very burnt food indeed.
"Britannia has two cylinders, both outside," Rainbow Dash explained, with a smile, again. "But Flying Scotsman has three cylinders instead, which will produce a mixed beat that will flow in and out of sync with one another."
"And it'll sound amazing," Scootaloo added.
"Ah prefer ta be further back round the curves," Apple Bloom said. "Ya get a better view that way of the locos workin' hard."
"Now y'all be careful that them windows don't drop on y'all," Applejack sternly warned them.
"The windows here drop down, rather than rise up," Sweetie Belle explained.
"But still, watch yer head," Pear told both of her daughters. "If something approaches quickly, get them back in."
"We're only going to be doing thirty or so miles an hour for most of the run," Rarity said, in a sentence that surprised most of them. "The climb up to Garsdale is very steep indeed."
Cheerilee then spoke up. "If we're done, then I suppose we might as well head to the station. We don't want to miss our train, do we?"
At Hellifield, the train came to a stop on the platform, and Tom stepped off the footplate, hoping Jimmy wouldn't break anything. When he stepped onto the platform, he saw two old friends of his. Both were girls, one with brown hair and hazel eyes and dressed quite appropriately for the weather in jeans, boots, and a long sleeved shirt. A pair of glasses sat quite prominently upon her nose. The other had blonde hair and blue eyes, and was dressed somewhat oddly for the occasion, in a large shirt, baggy shorts, and trainers.
"Hello girls!" Tom called. "Sorry I couldn't bring you a carriage. I hope Flying Scotsman fits the bill!"
"Glad you haven't lost your sense of humour!" the first girl, Katrina, replied. Another American, she had come all the way from Topeka. "I just hope we don't end up in a mess. It is wet here!"
"Welcome to Yorkshire," Tom replied. "That's not in Kansas, either."
"Am I stoking or engineering?" the other girl, Stephanie, asked Tom.
"Neither," Tom answered. "You're firing, Kat's driving."
"Shall we go then?" Katrina asked, and jumped onboard. Tom took position back on the footplate of Britannia, and took out the in cab radio.
"Are we ready to move, over?"
"Roger that. Godspeed."
Tom smiled. "Right you are, Kat." He gave the whistle a short toot, and they were off and away on their adventure.
A few minutes later, the train reached Settle Junction, where a red signal had brought it to a stop. Tom pulled out the radio (as it was buzzing) and answered it. "What's going on, 60077?"
"70000, I'm having a fault with the injectors and cannot clear it. We need to run at full power up to Settle station to solve the problem."
"Copy that. Right away it is. Check signals."
Just then, the signal arm in front of them dropped as a DMU came off the Runcorn line and passed them. "That's our signal," Jimmy replied. "Good to go?"
"Roger that," Tom replied, and reached up for the whistle chord. With a rumble of the whistle later, the train got underway again, steam shooting from the cylinders of 60077 as the two engines climbed the one in one hundred climb toward Settle Station, photographers looking on as the engines approached the platform. With an easy effort, Tom applied the brakes and brought the train to a stop. "Easy as a Sunday morning drive."
In the platform, the waiting party cheered as the train came to a stop. The doors were opened, and they climbed aboard. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash took a window near the front of the train, whilst Apple Bloom went further back. Rarity, on the other hand, went in search of a nonexistant Pullman car. All waited for the train to be given the all clear to move off.