Tornado, the first new steam main line locomotive to be built in Britain for almost 50 years, will pause on Chelsea Bridge over the Thames (nearest station Imperial Wharf) at 11:00hrs on Armistice Day 11th November to mark the two minutes silence. The locomotive will be hauling an Armistice Day special train from London Waterloo to Duxford (for the Imperial War Museum), Ely and Norwich promoted by Steam Dreams.
Tornado, which was built and is operated by registered charity The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, will be carrying a large knitted poppy on her smokebox for this journey. The poppy was produced by the ladies of the Corshen Knitting Group who have also made 2,212 knitted poppies for sale in Trust volunteer Lesley Harris's shop in aid of The Royal British Legion. It is expected that members of the Norwich branch of The Royal British Legion will meet Tornado on her arrival in Norwich at 15:04hrs.
The new £3m Peppercorn class A1 pacific steam locomotive was built over almost 20 years by The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, a registered charity, at its Darlington Locomotive Works and was officially named Tornado by TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall in February of this year. The locomotive has since entered regular service on excursion trains on the Network Rail main line. Tornado was named after the RAF aircraft of the same name which were serving in the first Gulf War when the project to build the locomotive started and are still serving in Afghanistan.
The Trust respectfully requests that anyone wanting to see Tornado follows the rules of the railway and only goes where permitted.