Tornado

Quite correct, and build in the lower cost of living, and the salary, becomes attractive in comparison.

 

Love all the speculation and blaming this, that and whatever....fact of the matter is that mechanical things break from time to time and that's that. They are doing a good job repairing Tornado and she will be back soon.

 

Total authenticity is difficult in icing. My wife made a smokebox front for a King Arthur but we could not work out how to represent the smoke deflectors. However she says she enjoys fitting the rivets

 

ahem, cough 'Macarthur Park' cough, cough ...

 

I see the loan for the tender has been fully repaid,that's one large burden sorted.
https://www.a1steam.com/category/news/

 

Fantastic news! This means that the locomotive now is fully owned by the A1 Trust?

Knut

 

Correct.

 

Been a few weeks since the last 'Will be fixed over the next couple of weeks' update
Fingers crossed normal English weather arriving by the weekend also...

 

Currently the weather forecast for Peterborough is for heavy rain all day Saturday.

 

Have just spoken to David Elliott at the NVR.

Expect good news shortly

 

Really ? there is some cake left ?
.. seriously that's something to look forward to.
Whatever the ins and outs of the motion fail turn out to be one has been a bit twitchy since the word 'alignment' was used...

 

Whatever the final conclusions from the investigations, and whatever the implications for the future operation of Tornado and other steam locos, a lot of us will be glad to know rather than continue to wonder. It is plausible that the alignment of something on Tornado may have been less than perfect, but surely not as bad as the misalignment that was revealed on Flying Scotsman when they took it apart.

 

Is alignment the new conspiracy theory?

 

No, it has been mentioned by A1 Trust along with oil quality.

Quote from website 22/6/2018 https://www.a1steam.com/category/news/

"The investigation progresses, and whilst it continues, the focus is on an alignment issue on the middle valve, analysis of the clearances in the valve rings and a concern over contamination or degradation in the lubrication used. We will continue to work through these issues to ensure robust conclusions are reached and agree suitable actions with our industry partners to avoid a re-occurrence."

 

Certainly different, but what I had in mind was that even the serious misalignment on FS only came to light when it was taken apart, so can't have caused any obvious problems out on the road.

 

Where was the word 'alignment' used ? I thought lubrication \(lack of) was the problem.
It's done tens of thousands of miles and now someone is saying/has said it out of line ?

 

No official report has been published yet. It is assumed it was a lubrication problem. Perhaps they have found something else. Let's just wait for the report.

 

Best to wait for the full report - however as I understand it, the misalignment is what caused the lack of lubrication in the first place, and additionally there may have been a problem with the lubricant used.

It's a case of several factors coming together to cause the incident, I suspect.

I don't claim any special knowledge, I have inferred the above based only on that I have read from the updates.

 

Absolutely. Perhaps it is worth noting that prior to her winter maintenance, there were no such issues apparent.

We can all learn from this and I think it is good that the A1 Trust is going down such a robust route of examination, and looking to share the results.