Your item about the locomotive which had come off the back of a low loader in Harrogate (December 20) seems to have missed the true story.

Your leader ('We're going loco') chose to make a silly joke instead of telling us what both Railtrack and Grant Rail had said in response to these questions.

Why was this loco DR75303 being transported by road from Skipton to London when there is a continuous line of railway between the two places?

What risk assessment was carried out before a decision to send it by road was taken which plainly endangered life and limb in Harrogate?

Does the road haulier have a case to answer about insecure loads?

Your article says that the loco (actually a track maintenance machine) was brand new and was Swiss made.

This begs the further question: how did it get from Switzerland to Skipton?

We should be told!

Councillor Quentin Macdonald,

Church Lane,

Nether Poppleton,York.