Tornado – A closer look :)

Yes, after my previous post I was pondering on what I should do next, I’d seen Tornado, albeit from a distance, and had my cuppa, and decided first to see if I could get a bus somewhere but decided against it and returned to the station and headed to NRM when I spot the entrances to the far platforms closed off by security… this intrigued me. then I saw the carriages of the Royal train and realised what had returned to York… Tornado

So, I rushed down to the opposite platform armed with camera and even donated £1 to the A1 locomotive trust

So I managed to get a couple of pictured of Tornado, of which I enclose :)

This first one is showing the full length of Tornado plus the carriage behind it, on the humour side there is a law in the UK saying it is against the law to smoke in enclosed public places, look what Tornado is doing, lol (Thanks to an unnamed national express East Coast staff member for that bit of humour)

Tornado and half of it’s tender, the blue nameplate is visible at the front

Tornado’s tender, with “British Railways” on the side, also shown is Tornado’s painted number “60163”

A close up of the side of the cab, displaying Tornado’s number, and it’s Axle Load class of RA 9, “RA 9” means the locomotive cannot be used on routes for anything less than that, as it is too heavy

One of Tornado’s name plates

The classic and the modern, Tornado and an electric powered British Rail Class 91 in service with national express East Coast

Though thinking about it, Tornado is actually the newer locomotive as it was built AFTER the entire fleet of class 91s, however Tornado’s original design, as it’s a Peppercorn A1 locomotive, dates back to the late 1940s, albeit it has had some modifications in design to accommodate modern railways

I did take a few more pictures but sadly they had a fair amount of people in them and that kind of ruined them, it was a busy place today

More soon

Happy Journeys :)

Royal naming of Tornado

Here I am at York railway station, having not long ago just caught the back end of the official naming of Tornado, the newest steam locomotive, with the carriages of the Royal train behind it, of which are modified Mark 3s from the original HST as well as some Mark 2s AND the usual locomotive that pulls the train at the rear, presumeably to provide power to the coaches

I was unlucky to NOT see His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, however I was lucky to get a glimpse of Tornado, and my what a spectacular engine it is, you have to actually see it with your own eyes to truly understand what a fantastic engine it is and what a fantastic job has been done to construct it

Well with the train now gone the station is returning to normal… ish and trains have been continuing to come through anyway

I’ll post again soon

Happy Journeys :)

Tornado, the newest steam engine

Now, I couldn’t go without mentioning Tornado, the newest Peppercorn A1 steam locomotive to be built, a 30-40 minute drive between my home and the locomotive works in Darlington where the locomotive was built, and since that time, it’s been well talked about

It has been up and down the East Coast main line more times than I can count, it’s been at NRM in York, it’s been to King's Cross in London, and it’s had the honour of pulling the Royal Train

Now, as a fan of trains, I would like to see this locomotive at some stage but every time I find out about it being somewhere I tend to be the last to know or something silly, so, next time it’s at York or Darlington I shall be there, IF I know in good time, lol

I now leave you with some small facts about Tornado

1) The number 60163 appears on Tornado, however, it’s number for use on the main line is 98863, this is because a) all steam engines are British Rail class 98, b) all locos and multiple units require a TOPS number to run on the mainline, and c) the third 8 applies to power classification (8P) and the 63 is from the painted number noted above

2) it is the ONLY A1 locomotive left, all other A1s were scrapped long before Tornado’s construction

3) The name was chosen in honour of the RAF Tornado fighter pilots from the Gulf War

4) It wears the LNER Apple Green livery, although it says “British Railways” on the side of the tender

5) Some small changes were made to the original design to meet with current operational and safety requirements for the modern railways, for example height differences for OLE safety, fitting of AWS and TPWS, and several other modifications for modern manufacturing methods