The final two weeks saw the BR Standard Britannia Pacific 70013 'Oliver Cromwell' in charge of the Scarborough Spa Express.
By this time we had discovered the reason for the slow line shuffle at Colton Jc. It seems that, in the working timetable there is a path for one of Network Rail's measurement trains running to Neville Hill for stabling and the shuffle was to allow this to overtake. No one on board the SSE ever actually saw this train pass mainly because it runs Mondays only! Apparently it did run on Bank Holiday Monday but passed through York half an hour before we arrived there.
However, on Tuesday 25th August 2009, a minor miracle occurred and we went straight through Colton Jcs. on the Leeds line!
Staying on the Leeds line meant that 70013 was able to pass through Church Fenton in the time honoured fashion at line speed with the whistle open. Very nice!
Our driver, Peter Walker, soon had the regulator open and we were doing well on the gradient and I was delighted when, approaching Micklefield, we appeared not to be getting a check before the junction but with the fast run up to this point the inevitable happened; we caught up with a stopping train and soon after passing Micklefield the regulator had to be closed yet again. Ah well, it was good while it lasted.