Tornado

A heads up. BBC 4 are showing Tornado's 100mph run at 23:10 tonight.

Dave B

 

And now for something a little bit different, the A1SLT have held their annual convention 'virtually' today!

 

Useful, if disappointing, info about the 90 mph issue. The Trust will continue to maintain Tornado in a fit state for 90 mph operation and may accept requests for such for rare special events but will normally keep to the 75 mph limit. One stated reason is increasing reluctance by others on the big railway. This despite the original rationale for 90 mph having been to fit in better with the modern railway.

 

Sad but not surprising. I still dream of the day that a steam loco does 100mph although Tornados 100mph run was perhaps the only time it will ever happen in my lifetime.

 

In idle moments I've often thought that HS2 just before services start would be ideal for all sorts of playing *ahem* scientific exploration of steam...

 

Yes. Perhaps a brake test of some sort?

 

A dynamic comparison of the effectiveness of air braking over vacuum braking as tested in 1938...

Realistically, I am just glad the A1 and P2 will exist, and be capable of 75mph...

Richard.

 

Wasn’t there some talk of Clan Line doing something like that over HS1 when that first opened?

 

In my idle moments I've sometimes found myself pondering if it would be theoretically possible to break Mallard's record. I'd got as far as "you'd need 60163, a long straight downward gradient and the A1 Trust to be in a very forgiving mood". A few minutes is enough to conclude that the record's fairly safe.

 

Potentially with the free running valve gear and single drive axle one thinks the P2 might actually be more suited to High Speed jinks, plus you could put a streamlined nose on, a (Lord) precedent has been set... or maybe bolt a HS2 Loco nose on and hope nobody notices the steam....

 

With the track much better than in 1938 and modern free running stock, any class 8 Pacific, Duchess, MN or LNER could break Mallard’s record but it ain’t going to happen.

 

You are wrong there. The restricted exhaust areas compared to the Mallard will prevent that.
Kind regards

 

Jos -- given your level of knowledge and experience, which (if any) Class 8 locomotive hauling modern stock down (e.g.) Stoke Bank might equal or exceed Mallard's record?

 

Well, I always had the idea that the Duchesses with a slight modification of the exhaust orifices would have come quite far!
The others would need some extra consideration.
Kind regards

 

Thank you -- that's very interesting.

Any hedge-fund managers out there fancy re-creating 46256...?

 

71000... with a 'semi' smokebox and no smoke deflectors...

 

Given the right conditions and permissions, I think the loco most likely to beat Mallard's world record is an A4. I think there is one receiving a full overhaul at present.

 

Insofar as the Peppercorn A1s were in some senses a later development of the A4s, an A1 might be even better placed to beat the record, especially when it's a much newer locomotive. Would the divided drive be an advantage at very high speeds because of more distributed stresses, or a disadvantage because of less ideal balancing? All of course entirely hypothetical, much as we might like to see it tried in reality.

 

How big is the loading gauge on HS2? Isn't there a German engine that is reckoned to be in with a good shout (071?)

 

Sorry, 18.201
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