Thwarted by the Badger on Beattock: Class 89 Avocet fails on its first Charter 18 August 2026

Tuesday 18th August should have seen Class 89001 cross the border into Scotland and reach Glasgow - which it never did. I was waiting to record it climbing up to Beattock summit. I recorded a number of passenger trains and the Tesco, double headed. Checking Realtime Trains , it was obvious something had happened at Warrington and that the train was around 90 to 100 minutes late. Time to go down to Lockerbie and get some lunch. Checking again the train hasnt reached Carlisle and I have a half hour to find a new location. Then while finding somewhere.... the train had been cancelled!

I hot footed back to Carlisle (part of the plan anyway to see the southbound working). There I found the train in the holding sidings with a Class 90 at the south end and Avocet / Badger skulking under the Victoria Viaduct. The train would head south hauled by the 90001 on its scheduled path. Apparently a battery issue had caused the 89 to fail with the 90 being called on from Crewe to bring the charter at least to Carlisle.

A few of the evening freights recorded to round off an eventful if frustrated day.


The times shown on clips are for guidance only and shouldn't be taken as definitive.

Any observations are my own and not intended to show any authority and may show my misunderstanding.

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