"And as the summer of '99 drew to a close, early signs began to suggest that Virgin's future imperative for hiring 'Deltics' might be heading for the buffers."
1999 was the summer you didn't want to end, and this was one of the reasons why. 'Deltic' D9000 arrives at Coventry with its weekly 12:10 Ramsgate - Glasgow Virgin CrossCountry service.
It was such an optimistic time. The notion of a 'Deltic' returning not just to the main line, but to regular service passenger trains, was one that no enthusiast seriously contemplated when British Rail withdrew the type from traffic at the start of 1982. But the late 1990s would see D9000 Royal Scots Grey play a starring role in the early history of Virgin Trains. Although the loco - then owned by Deltic 9000 Locomotives Limited (DNLL) - powered a variety of services for Virgin, it's most famous for its weekly trips from Birmingham to Ramsgate and back, throughout the summers of '98 and '99.
In Virgin's first CrossCountry summer - 1997 - the Saturdays only Birmingham - Ramsgate and return holiday trains had been scheduled for a Class 47/9. Indeed, at the start of that summer, neither D9000 nor any other 'Deltic' had worked a service train since withdrawal by British Rail.
As 55022 in British Rail days... To find an instance of 'Royal Scots Grey' hauling a regular service prior to its operations with Virgin, you'd have to go right back to the early 1980s. Back then, Grantham station still wouldn't have known what an electric train was if you beat it about the brickwork with a pantograph. RSG was clearly in better condition by the Virgin era than it was in 1981...
But on 23rd July '97, that situation was to change, as Royal Scots Grey powered Virgin's 1M20 from Paddington to Birmingham, and the return 1V96 from Birmingham to Reading. Both of these trains – intended as surreptitious tests – operated with a Class 47/8 technically as the train engine, but providing no power, and topped by the 'Deltic'. D9000 first worked a Virgin XC service without a Class 47 "train engine" on 11th August '97, when no companion loco could be sourced for the 1V96. The 'Deltic' – scheduled to top the train anyway – connected directly to the stock, just like the old days.
The continued hiring of D9000 by Virgin, accompanied by lengthy, ongoing negotiations with its owners - DNLL - led to the confirmation of significant forward scheduling.
On the 06:58 Birmingham - Ramsgate just south of Hampton in Arden.
Early in 1998, Virgin's PR Manager verified that over the year beginning 1st April, D9000 was lined up for at least 38 days' service work - nearly half of which would comprise summer Saturday trips from Birmingham to Ramsgate and back. Use of the 'Deltic' on these runs would simultaneously address both Virgin's dire motive power issues, and the need to bolster passenger volume on the Ramsgate journeys.
In '98, the SSO duty was scheduled as the 06:58 Birmingham - Ramsgate, returning as far as Birmingham on the 11:26 Ramsgate - Edinburgh. The train was booked to run between 30th May and 26th September, but on the penultimate week the Ramsgate was cancelled, with D9000 hanging around in Birmingham and instead taking a trip to Newcastle and back. On 18th July '98, the outward train ran via Nuneaton rather than Birmingham International, due to engineering work. Whilst on the Ramsgate turn, RSG was stabled at Oxley, Wolverhampton, with Saltley also used as a fuelling base.
Shortly before its 1999 season, 'Royal Scots Grey' had a full repaint, and so was almost ex-works for the start of its Ramsgate bookings on 29th May. The English Electric beauty is seen above coming off Saltley depot, before heading for New Street, early that morning. The 1Z82 headcode remains from the previous Saturday's working - a VSOE pullman from London to Bradford.
In spring 1999, Virgin confirmed a second summer season of Ramsgate trips for D9000. The main difference, apart from the Saturdays falling on different dates, was that the return train was now the 12:10 Ramsgate - Glasgow. The headcodes, however, were the same for both years: 1O99 for the outward, and 1S87 for the return.
D9000 was also scheduled for use on the last Birmingham - Ramsgate, which effectively ran as a one-off on 27th May 2000. However, events conspired against this, and in the end 47845 County of Kent was turned out instead.
The 'Deltic's return run passed Brickyard Crossing, near St Andrews Junction, at around the same time on a Saturday afternoon that the Leeds - Southampton Freightliner was due on the 'low level' line. You can't see the track itself in this shot, but the 'low level' line is carried over the canal by the bridge in the foreground. And since the Freightliner was booked for double-headed 47s, this location was quite an enticing place to visit in summery weather. If Birmingham City were playing at home, you could very clearly hear the football match too.
As late as summer 1999, enthusiast optimism remained very high, as rumours circulated to the effect that another of DNLL's 'Deltics' - 9016 Gordon Highlander - would begin operating on Virgin services in the September. But what seemed like a pending escalation of regular 'Deltic' service, was soon to undergo a dramatic U-turn.
One of the reasons Virgin had hired a privately owned 'Deltic' was the operator's dire need for reliable, Type 4/5 motive power with proper express passenger compatibility. The late 1990s period was one in which the demand for such traction almost constantly exceeded the supply. So whilst the use of D9000 did have obvious marketing/publicity/sales benefits, Virgin’s broader need for the loco was probably much more of an operational decision than people realised at the time. And that included the wider industry.
Where it all began. DNLL began life as the Deltic 9000 Fund, acquiring 55022 (D9000) and 55016 (D9016) from their British Rail 'resting place' of Doncaster Works in the first half of the 1980s.
Indeed, by early '99 DNLL had already committed to expensive main line certification programmes for two other 'Deltics' (D9002 and D9016) specifically on the strength of them gaining regular service work - not just charters. So there was clearly a sense that Virgin's need for D9000, and potentially other heritage crowd-pullers, would continue well beyond its motive power shortage. Virgin may even have believed that itself during earlier negotiations with DNLL.
Porterbook had financed the overhaul of D9016 on behalf of DNLL, under a sponsorship agreement which required Gordon Highlander to operate in revenue-earning service wearing the rather revolting Porterbrook livery. This had looked like sound business in early 1999, but it was a deal that DNLL would come to regret.
To avoid a potentially lengthy loiter at New Street, after working the 1S87 to Birmingham, D9000 would head for Saltley via Lifford. It was a much longer trip to Saltley, via Five Ways, University, Selly Oak and Bournville, then Lifford curve and the Camp Hill line. But it meant the loco could exit New Street within about three minutes of its train's arrival. Halt, shunter down, loco off, green light, and straight out. With Birmingham Uni in the background, RSG is captured above making that very trip. Before the building of the Selly Oak bypass, this rather overgrown footpath could make for quite a nice little trainspotting walk on Saturday afternoon.
And as the summer of '99 drew to a close, early signs began to suggest that Virgin's future imperative for hiring 'Deltics' might be heading for the buffers. For a start, the Ramsgate was not going to run through the summer of 2000, and that had been quite a unique, experimental diagram from the start. There were hints that Virgin had seen that service, at least in part, as a weekly 'railtour'. In '98 their Publicity Manager had even compared the Birmingham - Ramsgate ticket price with that of a railtour. But an experiment doesn't last forever, and if it's not fairly quickly rolled out more widely, the idea is probably going to be pulled.
And secondly, Virgin's already easing traction situation was soon going to improve to an unprecedented degree. With new Class 67s about to join the EWS fleet, the year 2000 would see a substantial number of Class 47/7s become available for long-term hire. That would allow Virgin to back up their 47/8 fleet with a universally familiar, passenger-compatible, standard type, until the Voyagers entered service the following year.
But the real omen came early in December 1999, when DNLL's 'Deltic' 9016 suffered a fire on its first revenue-earning duty. This left the Type 5 unable to earn back the cost of its sponsored overhaul, and with no indication that DNLL’s other locos were going to generate the revenue to cover costs, Porterbrook soon seized 9016 as an asset.
Virgin had, by this time, insisted that it foresaw no further regular requirements for DNLL locos, whilst DNLL continued to tacitly contradict this in public statements. It was hard to tell whether DNLL knew the relationship with Virgin was basically over and was just trying to maintain some confidence in its financial situation, or whether it had genuinely read its private dialogue with Virgin differently.
There's nothing like the demanding schedule of timetabled passenger service for bringing out the best in a locomotive. With the late '90s incarnation of Birmingham city centre in the background, D9000 'Royal Scots Grey' well and truly lets rip through Adderley Park station.
But whatever the truth, it was over for D9000 on CrossCountry service trains. One of the great real-life fairytales of UK railway history, had come to an end.