Railtours. Two Class 58's and 37 to Rosyth Dockyard, plus a Class 46 and an A2. June-July 1999

In typical Scottish summer weather A2 Peppercorn 60532 Blue Peter passes Linton Court between Kirkcaldy and Kinghorn, running 30 minutes late due to shunting problems at Millerhill Yard, with the first of two SRPS organised trips from Edinburgh round the Fife Circle and Edinburgh suburban line. Having dried out I waited for the afternoon run at Kirkcaldy Station but problems due to prolonged water stops on the first run saw it running 85 minutes late. Whilst waiting 66041 passed through with a Millerhill-Aberdeen engineers train followed by 56067 with an empty MGR train from Longannet Power Station. Finally at 16.40, 60532 passed on its second run. A month later I was at Edinburgh Waverley for a busy day of railtour arrivals starting with 60532 Blue Peter which was working another SRPS railtour from Linlithgow-Preston (1Z36) seen upon arrival at Waverley and again at Slateford after a water stop on the Edinburgh suburban line. Also at Slateford Pathfinder Railtours 'Royal Edinburgh' was seen with D172 Ixion in charge. This was the 1Z63, 03.00 Cardiff-Edinburgh. Northern Spirit liveried 158766 passes through Edinburgh Waverley on its way to Heaton Depot after refurbishment work at Railcare Springburn and was followed by 47635 emerging from platform 21 with a GNER liveried barrier coach, full HST rake of coaches and 43111 on the rear. 43167 had come off the front of the set before 47635 backed on. Highlight of the day was the 1Z58 Retford-Edinburgh run by the Worksop Open Day Committee which was hauled by 58048 and 58016. Upon departure from Edinburgh the tour visited the Rosyth Dockyard and Longannet Power Station lines hence the use of 37682 on the rear. 117308 works the 13.23 Edinburgh-Cowdenbeath and can be seen passing 91019 which arrived with the 08.30 Kings Cross-Edinburgh blunt end first. Next came 37428 with an additional Royal Scotsman working, the 1Z38 07.40 Keith-Edinburgh. This was followed by D172 Ixion which departed at 14.57 back to Cardiff and is seen sporting the Thames-Clyde Express headboard. A quick trip to Inverkeithing saw me catch 37682 coming up from the Rosyth Dockyard branch. Having thought the train would continue to Inverkeithing Yard (it didn't) I was just able to run the length of the platform before 58048 and 58016 pulled away after a brief stop to round off a good day.