Suzy, Drinker Of Coffee

Caledonian Railway Sulzerfest

My first Sulzerfest, from the Caledonian Railway’s own diesel group. Former Strathtay 543 was also there, working a shuttle bus between Bridge of Dun (Caley) Station and Montrose (ScotRail/GNER/Virgin) Station.

What’s special about a diesel gala? Well, for one day only (or two, as it’s going to be on Monday 1^st May as well), the mostly steam fleet is placed to one side, to let the 25xxx and 26xxx series diesel locomotives pull the carriages for a change. I asked on the Forum about what to expect, and was pointed to a webpage which revels in the benefits of such trains. Yes, it was fun, giving me reminders of the 80’s/90’s BR Scotland fleet…

You can see all my pictures on my Fotopic, including a variety of bits of station furniture, trains, buses, and more!

Sulzer by the way is the makers of the diesel engines, and NOT German for diesel… and the day rover tickets are printed in olde BR style, with “Freedom Of Scotland” modified to read “Freedom Of Sulzerfest.” I was thinking of a similar “Freedom Of Suzyfest”… well, the things you can do eh?

Thanks to ALL today’s volunteers, especially the owners and drivers of 543. 543 was the bus that (in it’s latter life) did the 54/54A school runs, which included the 76 at 1710 from Dundee Technology Park to the Bus Station. As a result, this was the bus I got back to town on the day when I successfully had my initial interview back in September 2002… so there was a “soft spot” for this bus there.

posted by Suzy Scott @ 23:49