New A1 Tornado Up and Running

[wallyworld]

The first new steam locomotive to be built in Britian in over fifty years is up and running...this is one fine looking engine with a potential for a significant running speed. If you google A1 Locomotive Trust, it will take you to their website. My mind is boggled at the hurdles this group jumped. Quite an enormous accomplishment. I wish we could post videos here...there are some on Youtube. 

 

 

[wjstix]

I remember reading about this in Railway Magazine in the nineties - it musta been 15 years ago when they started this project!! Good to see it working.

Railway Mag says the gray paint is temporary, it will eventually get a full paintjob.

Peppercorn Tornado!!

[wallyworld]

It is amazing, as one fellow said "no dents, no scratches..." I was very fascinated to see the updating of equipment they did as a retrofit...they even found a design flaw in the original specifications and corrected it in the new engine. Simply awesome. I never thought Id see a steam engine of this size with a builders plate with 20008 stamped on it.

[Chafford1]

The plan is to eventually run this at 90mph - which means under current UK rules, they'll have to test it at 100mph!

[wallyworld]

Do they have a date for mainline trials? I would love to see a video of that up on Youtube. That will be one for the books.

[Tulyar15]

According to a report in the latest issue of "Railway Herald" (a weekly on-line magazine http://www.railwayherald.co.uk/ ), on the latest test run they measure a drawbar pull of 2,000 hp. This may be puny by American standards but for Britain is very respectable.

I look forward to seeing "Tornado" in action.

[wallyworld]

One consequence of  watching the A1 debut on Youtube was the side panel that offered other videos of previous excursions using several other engines. I was very surprised to see them really rip past at more than respectable speeds, many main line runs and the mix of engines.... How fast do some of these these steam powered excursions go? On many videos...those coaches being pulled looked like rocket propelled vehicles..from the station platform. For someone in the U.S, it was depressing..to realise what little we have to experience via mainline steam at speed...after watching these I realised I live in the steam boondocks...retire in England?..hmmmm

[Last Chance]

The mainlines in the UK are supportive of high speed. Every week I think they have a day shut down for work on the ROW. I have followed UK Steam on a website for years through videos and they are as about as fast as they can go.

That new (Old) Tornado is going to give a nice boost to steam glory in the UK; since they actually have room to get up and go.

[wallyworld]

What is the website?

[Adbro]

Main line trials are scheduled to begin in about a month's time.

Until then, it is running in and trialling, up to 60 mph on the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire.

The first scheduled Tornado hauled passenger train, available to the public is this coming Monday.

[Adbro]

A1steam.com

[Last Chance]

The one I followed is this one:

 

 http://www.burgess57.freeserve.co.uk/railways.htm

No Tornado A1's yet but I reckon it's only a matter of time before they show up.

Keep in mind that the Archives hold alot of videos etc and the content changes every so often. Once in a while you can catch sight of the Royal Train as well.

 

 http://southtpe.co.uk/nws/videos/Steam/1Z33_17_6.WMV

I think this engine is the Royal Duchess. Not certain.

Source webpage for Steam Videos

 http://nws.southtpe.co.uk/steam.htm

This one is my favorite.

I think the slack ran out and caused the engine to slip a bit under the bridge. But still making good time upgrade.

 http://southtpe.co.uk/nws/videos/Steam/45407_Aisgill.WMV

Enjoy.

[wallyworld]

The one I followed is this one:

 

 http://www.burgess57.freeserve.co.uk/railways.htm

No Tornado A1's yet but I reckon it's only a matter of time before they show up.

Keep in mind that the Archives hold alot of videos etc and the content changes every so often. Once in a while you can catch sight of the Royal Train as well.

 

 http://southtpe.co.uk/nws/videos/Steam/1Z33_17_6.WMV

I think this engine is the Royal Duchess. Not certain.

Source webpage for Steam Videos

 http://nws.southtpe.co.uk/steam.htm

This one is my favorite.

I think the slack ran out and caused the engine to slip a bit under the bridge. But still making good time upgrade.

 http://southtpe.co.uk/nws/videos/Steam/45407_Aisgill.WMV

Enjoy.

 

Thanks...this is quite a (sight) er... site. I can see why it's your favorite...shes dug in and working up...great video.

[wjstix]

One consequence of  watching the A1 debut on Youtube was the side panel that offered other videos of previous excursions using several other engines. I was very surprised to see them really rip past at more than respectable speeds, many main line runs and the mix of engines.... How fast do some of these these steam powered excursions go? On many videos...those coaches being pulled looked like rocket propelled vehicles..from the station platform. For someone in the U.S, it was depressing..to realise what little we have to experience via mainline steam at speed...after watching these I realised I live in the steam boondocks...retire in England?..hmmmm

I don't know if it still happens, but I guess British Rail used to use restored steam engines on regular trains on some of their more scenic lines during the summer months. Imagine Amtrak having SP 4449 hauling trains along the Pacific coast line for a couple of months every summer.

[Tulyar15]

One consequence of  watching the A1 debut on Youtube was the side panel that offered other videos of previous excursions using several other engines. I was very surprised to see them really rip past at more than respectable speeds, many main line runs and the mix of engines.... How fast do some of these these steam powered excursions go? On many videos...those coaches being pulled looked like rocket propelled vehicles..from the station platform. For someone in the U.S, it was depressing..to realise what little we have to experience via mainline steam at speed...after watching these I realised I live in the steam boondocks...retire in England?..hmmmm

I don't know if it still happens, but I guess British Rail used to use restored steam engines on regular trains on some of their more scenic lines during the summer months. Imagine Amtrak having SP 4449 hauling trains along the Pacific coast line for a couple of months every summer.

This does indeed still happen, but these trains are now operated by private charter firms. One of the main operators is West Coast Railways who have two 5 day a week operations during the summer, in Scotland on the West Highland line between Fort William and Mallaig and during August the Cambrian Coast line in Wales from Machynlleth (pronounced "Mac - un - leth") to Pwllheli (pronounced "Poo - fell - ee"!). West Coast are now a fully fledge train operating company with their own train crews; other charter operators hire in crews from one of the established train operators.