That's because our drivers are not familiar with either, despite No.9 being a resident its hardly ever used they were its first service trains on the valley for nearly 3 years. The King was going tender first out which made it tricky, and No.9 is very light on its feet anyway, I've been on it with Loco and support coach and we only just made it out on damp rail, but once it gets going, boy is it a beast of an engine!
It was an excellent weekend and the diesel rescue made it even more satisfying, but even better was that later in the week the 73 ED was hauling the western back to Bridgnort and failed in section near Arley, 48773 had to come to the rescue of them both! Plus the Manor and No9 did most of the shunting at Bridgnort over the weekend, as the 08 was a bit unreliable, has been since sorted. I thiunk there's a moral to the story somewhere!
