The prospect of two steam hauled trains running over Shap, one of which would continue over Beattock, was sufficient encouragement to get us out to the lineside on 26th May 2012 in the expectation of some good recordings; sadly the reality proved a little different.
The weather for the day was, in most respects, excellent as we appeared to be having an early summer with wall to wall sunshine and high temperatures. Less welcome was the 'breeze' which was easterly, rather strong and on Shap would carry the sound of the M6 motorway towards us. In view of this we decided to start with a recording on Grayrigg rather than Shap.
The first of he two trains was being hauled by the ex LMS Coronation Pacific 46233 'Duchess of Sutherland' currently repainted in brunswick green and carrying its BR number and we first headed to a spot we had used before near Moresdale Hall but it proved too exposed to the wind so we ended up further down the bank nearer Oxenholme close to the site of Hay Fell signal box; not an ideal spot as it overlooked a road bridge with, as you can hear, a few spectators but at least it gave some shelter from the wind.
46233 turned up reasonably close to time, going easily with 12 coaches behind the tender and with a stuck cylinder cock. Once past, sound carried back a little until a southbound service train arrived to drown out the fading sounds of 46233.
Could have been worse I suppose.

The other train out that day was the first day of a three day trip to Scotland hauled by Tyseley's Castle 5043 'Earl of Mount Edgcombe' and, as we hadn't recorded it on the WCML before we decided that it would have to be Shap.
Getting shelter from the wind while reducing the motorway noise as far as possible proved problematic but we eventually settled behind a handy dry stone wall at Salterwath.
While waiting, we had heard the news that Network Rail had insisted that the train be assisted by a diesel on the climb to Beattock and that diesel would be attached at Carnforth; apparently there had been a problem with lineside fires a few days before. This was not welcome news but, perhaps on Shap the diesel wouldn't assist?
Well, as you can hear in this recording, it did.
Despite the diesel assistance, 5043 sounds to be working hard as it passes but the fears about lineside fires proved correct as, after the train had passed we could see smoke rising from both Greenholme and Shap Wells. Not good.

We had been in two minds about going to Beattock for the Castle as it would have meant a very late return home but now, with the prospect of the diesel doing most of the work, there seemed little point.
Instead, we headed off to get a recording of 46233 returning south over Shap and went to a spot that we knew would be sheltered near Harrison's Siding about 4 miles from Shap Summit and had our equipment set up with a just a little time to spare - or so we thought.
While waiting we couldn't help but notice that there was a marked lack of traffic on the up line and eventually discovered that this was due to a failed freight train blocking the line. Since this delay seemed likely to take a while to clear, we decided not to bother waiting and had packed up our equipment intending to get home even earlier than we had anticipated when, to our surprise, trains started running again and we decided to give it another half hour.
It was about 20 minutes later when 46233 arrived once again going very easily and, as sound didn't carry particularly well and we had the added annoyance of some quarry machinery working across the line, we got our third, rather short recording of the day.
Now while I may not have been too happy with the way things had gone, my disappointment must pale into insignificance alongside that felt by the passengers, particularly those riding behind the Castle who had paid a lot of money for three days of steam haulage and were getting more diesel than steam power. Not only that but the timings of that train in particular were not good with an early start and late finish on the first day and an equally late finish on the final day.
Both the changed timings from those originally advertised and the inclusion of a diesel being made at far too short notice; the news about the diesel only reached passengers when the train was at Crewe. This kind of thing is not going to encourage repeat business.