The 90 025 is seen in a sorry state at the Motorail Terminal, Edinburgh Waverley. Rust is visible on the body immediately beyond the yellow warning panel; it is possible that the locomotive has not had a repaint since 1993 given its early RfD livery ~ no branding and along with the cast BR double-arrow logo. The livery was evidently converted from the disasterous departmental grey of that era, the top dark-grey band being narrower than the bottom light-grey unlike the other RfD-livered locos. The red RfD diamonds on the other side had faded almost to white!

The working of the Sleeper seemed to be more complicated than I thought. As I was taking this round of photographs I was informed by a Scotrail staff that the up (Southbound) sleeper from Fort William are in fact attached to the 2355 ex-Edinburgh train (1C11) at Carstairs and not in Edinburgh; on this particular evening the loco in charge was 87 021 Robert the Bruce, the first time I had seen an 87 on that duty. It raises the (interesting) question ‘what do they do with this loco after it brings the ECS (5C11) from Polmadie?’ The ECS train starts at 2057 from the depot and arrives at 2203. Appropriate research reveals that there are two daily Carstairs-Euston sleepers: 1M11 Carstairs-Euston, comprising of 1C11 ex-Edinburgh at 2355 and 1M11 ex-Glasgow at 2355, joined at Carstairs, using the 1C11 loco, which would have been stabled at the Motorail Terminal the previous day. 1M16 Carstairs-Euston, comprising of 1M16 ex-Inverness at 2020, 1B01 ex-Fort William at 1950, and 1B16 ex-Aberdeen at 2140. All trains run via Edinburgh, using the loco from 5C11. The 1M11 loco returns to Edinburgh with 5O40 Polmadie-Edinburgh ECS and is stabled at the Motorail Terminal. Looks like the Scotrail guy confused the Glasgow sleeper with the Fort William one, or maybe I didn’t understand what he was saying, but here we are, the complete sleeper diagram :) Very sad, I know, but I was curious, and I was also trying to see if there is a more efficient way they could have moved the passengers, i.e. with less ECS and light loco workings. Oh, and here’s yet more sad facts about class 90s: 90 026 has full yellow warning panel not carried by other RfD 90s, 90 022 has cabside number in the same position as 90 026 but different to other RfD 90s, 90 018 is the only Res 90 with number on the front, and 90 026 lacks small RfD motif (normally applied beside the cab door) on the equipment side. I never thought there could be so much variation between the locos!

Photograph by Alex Lu (lexcie@innocent.com, http://www.lexcie.zetnet.co.uk/) Motorail Terminal, Edinburgh Waverley, 0012 hours on 03 April 1999. Jessop’s cheap ISO400, 15 seconds @ f8.