Tornado is now fully certified for the main line having completed a light engine move to Carnforth on 7^th March.  It has been a long old slog to get to this happy state of affairs but we now have a locomotive in fine condition, possibly the best it has ever been, with the  added bonus of the fitting of the European Train Control System.  It has undoubtedly been a massive team effort, and not just within the ‘home’ team as the significant involvement of myriad partners firmly illustrates.  It would be invidious (and a challenge!) to name them all but special mention must go to Locomotive Maintenance Services, the great people at Network Rail, and in particular the intrepid team serving the East Coast Digital Programme. 

The journey has had its ups and downs, but it has been a pleasure to witness the disparate parties coming together in common purpose – and we look forward to many years of giving pleasure to our supporters, enthusiasts and the general public out and about on the main line and on heritage routes. In some ways the overhaul of Tornado has been all-consuming across the breadth of the Trust, and we were forever conscious of the danger of exhausting a comparatively small team.  Inevitably other projects had to take a back seat while we focused on what the Army would term ‘The Main Effort’ given that no person can be in two places at once.  

The pragmatic decision to run the locomotive with West Coast Railways (WCR) will ensure that Tornado has plenty of work in future, filling a need for and air-braked Class 8 locomotive at Carnforth, which also means we will have some new opportunities including working ‘The Northern Belle’ and running tours with The Railway Touring Company.  A return to British Railways green will help our locomotive harmonise with the WCR fleet and, since this year marks the 60^th Anniversary of the A1’s last full year in traffic, is wholly appropriate.  Indeed, No. 60145 Saint Mungo, the last Peppercorn Class A1 to remain in traffic and in many ways the spur for building No. 60163, photographs of the engine at Drapers being scrapped being used in early Trust publicity to exhort people to support the project.

We sincerely hope that once the tour diary has been finalised that you will be able to travel behind Tornado again, back on the main line, where she belongs!