Tornado

Well... if mine gets broken it'll be down to me and me alone.

 

My late mother almost lived in fear of breaking my favourite mug, to the extent that she hid it when certain friends of hers came round.
I kept telling her that I had two of them so it wouldn't be a total disaster if it got broken, but it didn't make any difference.

 

My partner has never lived in fear of breaking anything of mine. Always my fault for owning whatever got broken.

 

Traditional thread drift. Anyone know when Tornado is having test runs?

 

It had a loaded mainline test run on 16th. Not heard anything more.

Dave B

 

Update on test run just appeared on A1ST FB Page:-
No. 60163 Tornado Test Run Update
On 15th January 2019 No. 60163 Tornado completed a first main line test run following major repairs after the failure hauling ‘The Ebor Flyer’ last year. After a successful engine and support coach run from the Nene Valley Railway at Wansford to Doncaster, with a brief check at Grantham and more detailed inspection at Roberts Road in Doncaster, No. 60163 ran to Northallerton with a train of around 400 tonnes.

All appeared to go as planned and... the locomotive ran well, although we detected that the exhaust timing was slightly off beat throughout the run. On arrival at Northallerton an inspection revealed that a motion pin on the left hand combination lever had run warm and further post run inspection identified some minor distortion. This would have accounted for the valve timing being slightly out and sufficient friction to generate the heat was identified. We are currently investigating the cause of the distortion but are confident that it is unrelated to Tornado’s failure on ‘The Ebor Flyer’.

Repairs are being made now at Barrow Hill alongside the annual re-certification process. We anticipate a further proving run ahead of ‘The North Briton’ on 9th February running from Leicester to Carlisle.

 

Another run cancelled -

It is with considerable regret that we have to announce that the ‘The North Briton’ on Saturday 9th February from the East Midlands to Carlisle via the Settle & Carlisle Railway has had to be postponed and re-dated to September 2019 – we are hoping to have confirmation of the precise date within a few days.
Following its test run earlier this month it was identified that No. 60163 Tornado had suffered some damage to a motion bush as a result of a minor deflection to the combination lever on the driver’s side. During the test run, Trust personnel had noticed that Tornado was slightly off-beat – something impossible to detect until the locomotive had left the 25mph Nene Valley Railway and picked up speed on the Network Rail main line. Investigations to-date lead us to believe that this damage was caused during a priming (water carry over) incident whilst operating a photo charter train on the Nene Valley Railway during our last couple of weeks of operations. It was, however, not possible to identify the cause of the damage to the motion bush without significant dismantling of the engine. After work to rectify this issue, and a thorough C exam including a piston and valve inspection, the engine has been reassembled and Tornado is currently in the middle of her annual recertification prior to returning to the main line.
Despite best efforts by our Director of Engineering and his team of staff and contractors, we have been advised by our operator DB Cargo that they now have insufficient time to complete the necessary processes and procedures, both internal and industry, to facilitate the necessary test run to enable Tornado to haul ‘The North Briton’ on Saturday 9th February.
After so much hard work and dedication by the team who worked to get Tornado and her support coach ready for the first test run and the additional effort over the last fortnight, this is a bitter blow. We recognise this will also be a great disappointment for all those who support the locomotive and we seek your further patience and support whilst we clear the remaining hurdles to Tornado’s imminent return to main line service.

 

Where abouts is tornado been repaired this time?

 

Barrow Hill I believe.

Dave B

 

Been on wash-out, boiler insurance exam, VAB exam and minor repairs as above.

 

"Priming incident ".......what?????

 

And how would that cause the combination lever to get bent?

 

Did I suggest such a thing?

 

Oh, do I detect the faint whiff of a hare running...?

 

This from their website copied and pasted to say

Tornado Update
31/01/2019
It is with considerable regret that we have to announce that the ‘The North Briton’ on Saturday 9th February from the East Midlands to Carlisle via the Settle & Carlisle Railway has had to be postponed and re-dated to September 2019 – we are hoping to have confirmation of the precise date within a few days.

Following its test run earlier this month it was identified that No. 60163 Tornado had suffered some damage to a motion bush as a result of a minor deflection to the combination lever on the driver’s side. During the test run, Trust personnel had noticed that Tornado was slightly off-beat – something impossible to detect until the locomotive had left the 25mph Nene Valley Railway and picked up speed on the Network Rail main line. Investigations to-date lead us to believe that this damage was caused during a priming (water carry over) incident whilst operating a photo charter train on the Nene Valley Railway during our last couple of weeks of operations. It was, however, not possible to identify the cause of the damage to the motion bush without significant dismantling of the engine. After work to rectify this issue, and a thorough C exam including a piston and valve inspection, the engine has been reassembled and Tornado is currently in the middle of her annual recertification prior to returning to the main line.

Despite best efforts by our Director of Engineering and his team of staff and contractors, we have been advised by our operator DB Cargo that they now have insufficient time to complete the necessary processes and procedures, both internal and industry, to facilitate the necessary test run to enable Tornado to haul ‘The North Briton’ on Saturday 9th February.

After so much hard work and dedication by the team who worked to get Tornado and her support coach ready for the first test run and the additional effort over the last fortnight, this is a bitter blow. We recognise this will also be a great disappointment for all those who support the locomotive and we seek your further patience and support whilst we clear the remaining hurdles to Tornado’s imminent return to main line service.

We will be running a further ‘The North Briton’ from the East Midlands and South Yorkshire in September 2019. We are awaiting the exact date to be confirmed, if you are booked on this tour, our booking agents (UK Railtours) will be in contact when the date is confirmed.

 

More or less the same as the post #5387 above

 

No you didn't, but post #5387 quoted "a minor deflection to the combination lever" (now repeated in post #5396). So I'm still interested to learn how priming could cause that.

 

Priming means water is carried over and this increases pressure on valves and therefore the combination level as I understand it.

 

Priming does indeed cause water carry over but this would not lead to an increase in pressure nor would it lead to hydraulicing of the piston valve as the live steam side is a fixed volume and the exhaust side is open to the blast pipe. I too am Intrigued at the suggestion that priming is the cause of a damaged combination lever, unless it led to a lubrication failure.

 

If it did suffer from any priming surely the cylinder relief valves would have operated.....?