its mainline career hauling revenue-earning passenger trains. In recognition of the high standard to which the locomotive had been restored, 6024 was outright winner of the 1990 British Coal sponsored Heritage Award (for a restoration project using coal), and awarded a £3,000 prize which was put towards the restoration of a British Railways Mark 1 BSK coach for conversion to a support coach to accommodate support crew and equipment for mainline work. Mainline tours The society was invited by British Rail to provide 6024 to haul the InterCity VIP special on 19 May 1990. In July 1990 it appeared at the National Railway Museum Exhibition on Tour which was held at Swindon Works, where it celebrated its 60th anniversary and was stabled alongside classmate 6000 King George V''. Affectionately nicknamed "Spud One" the locomotive was used for an expanding mainline tour programme, based at either Tyseley, Didcot or Hereford Railway Centre. In late 1991 the locomotive was invited to haul the "William Shakespeare Express" from London Paddington, its first appearance there for almost thirty years. As open access to the national network brought more routes into play in early 1992, 6024 was increasingly seen hauling passenger charter trains on a number of previously banned routes, including the mainlines to the West of England via Bristol, and South Wales through the Severn Tunnel. Fitted with BR's standard Automatic Warning System (permitting speeds up to 75 mph), 6024 reintroduced steam-hauled express passenger trains to a number of new destinations within western zones for the first time for many years. In August 1992 the locomotive made its promised return to Quainton Road, this time via the mainline, when in the company of 5029 Nunney Castle it hauled shuttles to and from Aylesbury. However, plans to take a train to Plymouth were thwarted by the locomotive's cab height preventing it from passing an over-bridge at Plympton. Modifications After running almost 10,000 mainline miles, in March 1995 the locomotive was withdrawn from traffic for its heavy overhaul at the end of its mainline boiler certificate, and it retired to a secure Ministry of Defence site at Kineton in Warwickshire for the Society to carry out the work. In September 1996 it reappeared with a number of small but significant modifications, incorporated in order to make it more adaptable and to increase its availability. The modifications included the fitting of dual-braking equipment (air and vacuum) to