Tornado

Great pics Jonathon, a little piece of history captured for the future; well done =D>

 

Are the coaches being left at Millerhill? Tornado is booked engine and support coach to Tyne Yard tomorrow according to UKSI.

 

Sadly I wasn't able to get a decent pic yesterday, but I did have a couple of teenagers with me, who were VERY impressed with Tornado as it passed, so not all was lost =P~

As previously mentioned, it's quite something when the last Waverley-KX steam-hauled train was Blue Peter, then yesterday's northbound run was Tornado. Let's hear it for the Peppercorns indeed \/

Both runs funded by the BBC, afaik, but as far as I'm concerned, for once it was money well spent =D>

As for keeping the times out of the public domain, then I agree that this was prudent on this occasion. It's bad enough when there are lots of folk who SHOULD know about trespass etc, but the thought of potentially thousands of petrolheads who DON'T normally go near railways milling about next to the ECML is, frankly, scary...

Anyway, well done again to all concerned, & what a fantastic publicity coup for the A1 Trust. This surely trumps the Boyal naming, & I'm looking forward to seeing the show.

 

the pics by jonathon are fabulous...

 

I would have thought the passengers on the train would have contributed to the costs of the train also. I had to turn down the oppurtunity to travel on it due to being on nights, but from what I am led to believe it was fully dining, and was all but full, with the last few seats being sold on the recent train operated by the tour promoter (I thing Tornado's headboard gives away who promoted it - or didn't as the case may be).

 

60532's Southbound run with the Blue Peter headboard was actually a public railtour promoted by Days Out Railtours.

 

Don't forget the cost of the helicopter following the train!! It can be clearly heard in a couple of the clips. Should be be some excellent aerial shots - looking forward to seeing the programme...

 

I had hoped that the reason for the blanket of silence before this trip might have been that it would be the occasion for letting Tornado go up to its design speed instead of the 75 mph limit for preserved steam. So I was sorry when when the real reason for the secrecy was announced.

Still it was a good day out, with Tornado having no trouble at all maintaining around 70-75 mph most of the way, with exhaust too quiet to be heard from the back of the train -- a very different acoustic experience from a recent run with Oliver Cromwell (which I understand disgraced itself and was unable to run yesterday).

Richard

 

I don't think a single person on nat pres is going to miss the programme, an excellent achievement =D>

 

Apropos who paid for what: at least those of us who booked through Steam Dreams paid £250 each, some of which will have gone to the caterers but some of which is going to the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust. The train wasn't quite full, because the caterers had set a limit on how many they could feed from one kitchen car. The BBC must have paid for use of the helicopter, but that's a perfectly reasonable part of the cost of making the programme (and it added a bit of entertainment for us on the train). I presume (though I don't know) that the BBC have also paid the Trust something.

Richard

 

Presumably thinking about that shoulden't be too far off now ?, 60163 has proved itself a strong and reliable performer thus far.

 

Passed Cromwell foot crossing at 9.43 in fine style

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10257146@N05/3472978029/

Simon.

 

topgear is sold around the world, it makes more money for the bbc than it costs-the ONLY program the bbc makes that does not cost licence payers-something to think about \/

 

Well guys, what a superb day and something that will live long in the memory.

A couple of points to make, the first and important one being...... What headboard was Tornado carrying? (http://jonathonag.fotopic.net/p57780212.html) This should give you an idea of who actually paid and organised the trip itself and not the BBC out of taxpayer’s money! This also co-insides with the relevant Steam Dreams headed paperwork being on the train itself ie menus, information letters etc and their stewards on board too.

Secondly, they guests on board the train were invited by Steam Dreams direct to travel and any monies raised by this trip is going to the A1 trust, they knew the train was happening but the majority if not all didn’t actually find out the reason of the trip until we were actually on route. As Mr Mellish has wrote, it was quite enthralling to see the helicopter alongside the train on numerous occasions and if the on board views were anything to go by, the footage and the program itself will be something quite special!!!

Jeremy Clarkson was on the footplate for the whole trip and also had some encounters with the shovel too and the general feeling is that he was absolutely buzzing by the whole experience so hopefully he will give this impression on the TV program itself. Every time we saw him he always had a smile on his face which was covered in coal dust as Jon's pictures confirm.

Overall a superb day out, long and tiring but worth every minute of it, a great deal of thanks must go to all the people involved and if no one has every experienced premier dining before then I would suggest its worth doing at least once, the food was excellent all day and plenty of it too! Mile after mile of sustained running and the loco was on top form. A top effort all round and something that will be remembered for a very long time!!! Well done to all!!!
=D>

 

Thanks mate

Nah..Not Mark..But i do have a pic of him looking out when tornado 1st came to scotland: http://jack.prentice.fotopic.net/p56643485.html

 

A great write up, thanks for clearing up all the questions i and others had about who was on the train etc, im very jealous!

Chris

 

A black and White image with most of the OHL cloned out

 

Well interesting comments, I also was on the train. Was it really paid for by Steam Dreams? Cleary Mr Bunker did the organisation but we weren't really told anything much. The £250 was a substantial donation and I hope most of it went to A1ST. The letter with the Tickets indicated Network Rail, DBS and Rivera had all contributed 'Free-of-charge'.

60163 ran well but it was, to me anyway, a day of two halves. Up to York running was restrained, Stoke summit cleared at 64/65mph, good but not exceptional. We had a crew change at York and then saw more of what the loco can do. We arrived bang on time so we must have been booked to follow the stopper into Waverley which was frustating, good TV though. After 380 odd miles we saw our first yellow signal!

One rumour on the train was that Clarkson was orginally going to drive the car but when he saw Tornado he pulled rank and said "I'm going on that".

 

Nigel, do you know who was driving after York? I understand Don Clark was driving the first leg.

 

I haven't had chance to read through all the posts on this run,
but if TBird Frank had bothered to read the post immediately before his,
he would have seen the reason for the secrecy - concerns about crowd control/trespass!!!