70000 Britannia : 'The Cumbrian Mountaineer' and subsequent failures Wednesday 8th April 2026

I travelled on the ill-feted 70000 Britannia hauled 'Cumbrian Mountaineer' yesterday Wednesday 8th April and all the subsequent failures that occurred

I was just heading to end of Platform in the morning and Britannia arrived very early, so i was unable to get a decent photo of her arriving
https://railway-photography.smugmug...70000-Britannia-failed-at-Oxenholme/i-NWP5PvT
so i walked up to the other end of platform hoping for a decent photo only to find a overhead mast right alingside 70000 Britannia, Oh well i should be able to get some decent photos at Carlisle, little did i know what was going to happen later!!
https://railway-photography.smugmug...70000-Britannia-failed-at-Oxenholme/i-CBwv4M5
https://railway-photography.smugmug...70000-Britannia-failed-at-Oxenholme/i-wZZdxqz

Some very high speed running especially around Morecambe Sth Jct & Carnforth, (i won't mention the speed), then approaching Oxenholme things started to go wrong, we were approaching a stop signal, which was unusual, we found out the footplate crew had requested a stop to check out some banging noises, 70000 went into the loop and was taken off and removed into the engineers siding for inspection, where we heard that it was a failed big end, photos show the support crew inspecting the loco.
https://railway-photography.smugmug...70000-Britannia-failed-at-Oxenholme/i-9f8tzVr
https://railway-photography.smugmug...70000-Britannia-failed-at-Oxenholme/i-vW8ZGjj

and then removing the connecting rods.
https://railway-photography.smugmug...70000-Britannia-failed-at-Oxenholme/i-59vwZnQ
https://railway-photography.smugmug...70000-Britannia-failed-at-Oxenholme/i-wfN4R2J

37409 was summoned from Carlisle to take over the tour and we finally arrived at Carlisle well over an hour late.
https://railway-photography.smugmug...70000-Britannia-failed-at-Oxenholme/i-6xcbb4K
https://railway-photography.smugmug...70000-Britannia-failed-at-Oxenholme/i-bh5hSbj

I decided i wasn't going to bother with the return trip back to Crewe behind 37409 i went home via the S&C to Leeds, then on to Huddersfield, which in retrospect was a good idea as 37409 itself failed at Tebay, luckily 2 class 20's sent to rescue 70000 at Oxenholme were able to get to Tebay to collect broken 37409 and train, with a 1 hour late arrival back at Crewe. (Has there ever been a tour where the rescue loco also failed and had to be rescued?)

Neil