The Rhins & Machars Crompton (17th) - 18th May 2002
Over 5 years since our last tour (the Robin Reliant of 15/02/1997), I was rather hoping to hang up my hat where 33111 Charters were concerned - other people in our Class 33/1 Preservation Society had other plans! I agreed to look into the planning & timing side of things but passed the advertising/bookings & seating plan operations over to Dave Fry (thanks Dave). We were taking the opportunity to use one of our own loco's (33108, on hire to Fragonset) on the tour which would feature a pair of class 33's from the Fragonset mainline pool with Riviera stock from Crewe CS. As I had been involved in the Epic that was the "Skirl o'the Bagpipes" in 1995 which took Crompton's North of the Border for the first time, we would take the chance to turn left at Gretna Jn & bash all new track for class 33's all time! To achieve this end an overnight start was required to give us the time we needed once in the South West of Scotland, so not wanting to leav...