LOL! Couldn't resist, and there'll no doubt be a Facebook campaign to have me exiled to some railless British region just for the sheer temerity of that comparison... Well the Borders will do just fine, ta - its natural majesty is still there to be inhaled, even if its diesel denizens and hill-climbing 2-6-0 stalwarts exist only in spirit form.

Claytons were allocated to 64B from new; in summer 1966 Haymarket consolidated its position as the largest home depot for the would-be 'Standard Type 1' with 47 examples, ahead of Polmadie, Kingmoor and Gateshead/ Thornaby. That the class was considered massively unsuccessful cannot be disputed, and its service life was characterised by huge reallocations, periods spent in and returning from store, and untimely withdrawals as the handful of sheds attempted to wrest useful mileage from their charges.

64B had examples of all sub-classes. From new it had D8554-85 of the standard type, plus Rolls-Royce engined 17/2s D8586/7. Later D8604-16 of the Beyer-Peacock-built 17/3 sub-class with Crompton Parkinson traction motors, generally considered to be better put together and more reliable, also migrated to Edinburgh from Barrow Hill and Gateshead.

8552/3 also spent a short time at 64B on loan from 66A to maintain fleet strength at 47 while 8604/5 returned to their native NER in summer '67. Heljan staple 8545 had been an early Lothian engine, spending a month at Leith Central for familiarization before Haymarket's scheduled allocation arrived.

Until the May '66 T/T the allocation comprised these original 34. In the pursuit of steam replacement, the NER baker's dozen arrived. The allocation stayed at 47 for fourteen months.

As the Waverley's traffic was run down and diverted away, and other Lowland duties failed to sustain the numbers, the unloved Claytons went west to Polmadie, 4 in 8/67 and 3 in 10/67 after the new T/T, more light wastage reduced the totals to 31 to operate the Summer '68 T/T, although half a dozen went in the August. Rather bizarrely the reallocations were in number order starting with the lowest. There was obviously an anal retentive in the back office. As it were.

8502/15 and 8525 unexpectedly moved to 64B in October '68 as Kingmoor dispensed with their services, but their stay was short and the decline of the Millerhill outbased class continued. The Waverley closed as a through route with 23 on Haymarket's books, the closure resulting in a cull of another six, 8571/2/3/4/6/82. Fourteen remained, and saw out the Hawick freight-only period. The allocation grew once more before the end of the decade, with the transfer in of homeless stragglers from the NER and Polmadie. As everyone knows, no BR main line diesels were retired during 1970, but as Granma Broon will attest, the writing was on the wall for the pretty looking Class 17s, and it read 'EXTINCT BY THE END OF 1971.'

I understand that Heljan make a model of the Clayton, but I'm undecided about it, and I'm thinking of taking up marzipan-shaping instead.

Next instalment will take a look at Leith Central's role in the Waverley Route. In the words of the mighty RAMONES, stay tuned for more Rock'n'Roll.

Here's a cute pic of foxy D8505 at Millerhill, after she'd missed the Waverley Route closure:

http://www.railbrit.co.uk/imageenlarge/imagecomplete2.php?id=30533