On 15th January 2019 No. 60163 Tornado completed a first main line test run following major repairs after the failure hauling ‘The Ebor Flyer’ last year. After a successful engine and support coach run from the Nene Valley Railway at Wansford to Doncaster, with a brief check at Grantham and more detailed inspection at Roberts Road in Doncaster, No. 60163 ran to Northallerton with a train of around 400 tonnes.
All appeared to go as planned and the locomotive ran well, although we detected that the exhaust timing was slightly off beat throughout the run. On arrival at Northallerton an inspection revealed that a motion pin on the left hand combination lever had run warm and further post run inspection identified some minor distortion. This would have accounted for the valve timing being slightly out and sufficient friction to generate the heat was identified. We are currently investigating the cause of the distortion but are confident that it is unrelated to Tornado’s failure on ‘The Ebor Flyer’.
Repairs are being made now at Barrow Hill alongside the annual re-certification process. We anticipate a further proving run ahead of ‘The North Briton’ on 9th February running from Leicester to Carlisle.