PEPPERCORN ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado returned to steam for the first time in over two years at the Great Central Railway on August 23, marking the end of its much-delayed £1 million overhaul. However, plans for the 2008-built ‘Pacific’ to visit the Nene Valley Railway have been delayed yet again, until October.
Withdrawn at the GCR for its ‘ten-year’ overhaul in January 2022, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust had originally hoped to return the new-build 4 ‐ 6‐2 to steam by June that year, using one of two new Diagram 118a boilers being built by DB Meiningen in Germany for use on both Tornado and under-construction ‘P2’ No. 2007 Prince of Wales. However, owing to delays in completing those boilers, No. 60163’s existing boiler was instead sent to Meiningen for overhaul in February 2022.
Further delays in completing the overhaul of the boiler, as well as the complexities of installing the European Train Control System to the locomotive as part of the Network Rail-funded ‘Pathfinder’ project to fit digital in-cab signalling to a steam locomotive, forced the trust to cancel planned railtours for the rest of 2022. Although the overhauled boiler returned to Darlington in December that year, concerns raised by British Engineering Services over the quality and installation of the small tubes forced the trust to replace both the small tubes and flue tubes. The overhaul was further delayed when problems were discovered with these replacement tubes, necessitating the fitting of a third set.
The repaired boiler was finally reunited with the frames at Locomotive Maintenance Services in Loughborough in October 2023, before Tornado moved to the GCR on May 23 this year for final finishing and snagging jobs prior to its steam test and ETCS testing. A warming fire was finally lit in the ‘A1’s’ firebox at Loughborough on August 12, with the A1SLT saying that Tornado would “undertake initial movements at the Great Central Railway before moving by road to the Nene Valley Railway” ahead of its planned public services there on August 24-26. It would have been third time lucky for the NVR, as No. 60163 was originally scheduled to visit the Wansford-Peterborough line for March 28-April 1 this year, but the overrunning overhaul prompted the trust to reschedule No. 60163’s visit for May 21 ‐27, until this too was postponed until August.
However, on August 19, days after the warming fire was lit, the trust said: “It has become apparent that we no longer have the time required to confidently meet our August bank holiday heritage line commitments and operate reliably. We had hoped to expedite the running-in process by having a boiler inspector visit the engine at the end of last week. However, despite provisional agreement, it did not prove possible.
“In effect, with the necessity to cool the engine before travel, this left no time for meaningful mileage accumulation before moving to the Nene Valley Railway, leaving no contingency time to address any potential minor issues that may arise. This risked last ‐minute disappointment for the NVR and its visitors; something we did not wish to occur. Therefore, in conjunction with the NVR, difficult decisions have been made to prioritise Tornado’s running-in closer to our engineering resources in Loughborough and move our Nene Valley Railway visit to an extended period in October.”
The revised dates for Tornado’s NVR visit are now October 19/20 and 26/27. Until then, the ‘A1’ is undergoing mileage accumulation at the GCR, including running at up to 60mph, before moving to Tyseley Locomotive Works as a base for main line testing in the first half of September. Tornado’s first railtour since late 2021 is expected to be the A1SLT’s Leicester-Chesterfield-Doncaster-LeedsSkipton-Carlisle and return ‘Ribblehead Rambler’ on September 21.