The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has released its latest repair update on steam locomotive 60163 Tornado.
Tornado has been undergoing running in at the Nene Valley Railway. Two weeks of this has been successful, clocking up 772 miles, this was made up of 225 miles light engine, and 547 miles with passengers.
DB Cargo has carried out an audit of the condition of the locomotive and the various paperwork that accompanies it. This includes the certificates for the boiler and the air reservoirs, ultrasonic testing of the axles, spring weights etc.
No major defects were found, although a few minor defects were found which mostly arose from two weeks of continuous activity which will be attended to during the A exam scheduled to start on the 11th October.
This all represents a major milestone in returning Tornado to the mainline after its failure on the ‘Ebor Flyer' on the 14th April 2018.
Whilst being repaired, the trust decided to refurbish and renew parts of the outside cylinder valve whilst the locomotive was out of service.
The repair has taken much longer than first expected to complete. This is due to a number of factors, including the fact that Tornado is based a long way away from the trusts own engineering resources. Parts of the British mechanical engineering industry that the trust rely on have also been very busy. This resulted in long lead times to have specialist machining and welding work done.
The trust wants to thank Arthur Stephenson Engineers Ltd of Atherton who was able to forge and machine a new union link and combination lever in a short period of time. They would also like to thank Durham Precision Engineering Ltd of Newton Aycliffe who rapidly CNC machined a new crosshead drop link.
The A1SLT were lucky enough to have a casting for a new crosshead ‘in stock', one of three had recently been delivered by William Cook Cast Products Ltd for the new build P2.
The A1 Steam locomotive Trust also owes thanks to the Nene Valley Railway which has made them welcome and let them use their railway to run in Tornado.
Tornado and its team are now working hard to return to the mainline. It is hoped that the remaining 2018 season is as follows:
- Saturday 3rd November – Linlithgow and Edinburgh Waverley to York via Carlisle (southbound – Tornado) and Newcastle upon Tyne (northbound – diesel) – SRPS
- Saturday 1st December – ‘The Christmas Border Raider' – West Midlands to Carlisle via the Settle & Carlisle Railway and return – A1SLT
- Saturday 15th December – ‘The Chester Chuffer' – Salisbury to Chester and return (Tornado from/to West Midlands) – Pathfinder Tours
This is excellent news to write about. We look forward to seeing Tornado on the mainline soon.
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