Tornado to Hit Didcot!

Great to see her gracing Didcot on the demo line albeit very quietly, obviously to conserve coal on a sparsely populated day. Probably cos the weather was awful, cold, windy, raining, and not really the sort of day to take kids for a day out there. Plenty of room though, and the hot cup of tea went down well. !

 

With a 170 ton loco, all those roller bearings and only 2 x 30 ton coaches to help stop it all, I think I'll be driving it gently on Monday as well! LOL

Hope the weather is better too.

 

Certainly wasn't sparsely populated today - the queue to get in was well into the subway at 11am (and that was with people who had prepaid and members going straight in!). That said you can lose a lot of people on that site without it feeling crowded. The list for the footplate passes was down to 4pm by the time I looked at lunchtime so I'm guessing that sold out as well. Weather was fantastic - plenty of sun but with a good breeze to keep it from feeling too hot. Obviously a lot of work had gone into displaying various loco's and stock around the site and all credit to everyone who worked so hard. I really enjoyed the day but as an enthusiast perhaps the most satisfying part was seeing so many people wanting to see what steam railways are all about. This photo (if it loads) isn't the best you'll see of Tornado but the crowd tells the story.

 

It'd be great if someone from Didcot could give us some attendance figures - i was just looking at this video and the crowds are huge - if you go to 5:35 its just a sea of people. Amazing.

Chris

 

I was lucky to be able to visit Didcot on Thursday, which wasn't a "steam day", but there were half a dozen locos posed around the site and Tornado was running on the "Main Line" for Driving Experience days.

Tornado was paired with the Autocoach for the driver training, which was a rather unusual sight, but at around 2:30 the train was brought off the main line and the autocoach detached. Tornado then moved to the coaling stage and later reversed to pick up the two coaches normally used for passenger service. After returning to the main line we were then let on to the train and platform rides were also offered. A very good day.

 

Didcot may not have the romance of some of the preserved lines in the countryside, nor the opportunity for speed. But where else has the public had the chance to take so many up-close and personal shots of 60163, not to mention being able to stand and stare at the working parts in slow motion from just a few yards away? I shall be looking out in the calendar for future all-day attractions there.
Could I borrow her to steam past my local picnic area/beer garden, please?

 

Went over to Didcot again today and enjoyed MUCH better weather than last Tuesday. Fabulous picture above and agree with evrythinb said about the surroundings and ambience of the place. Beer in the gardens; lovely stuff ! Bring it on. And incidentally, I'm vertain that there were some youngsters who spent most of the afternoon on the Tornado train. Hope they enjoyed it all

 

We visited on Saturday and enjoyed it very much even though we arrived a bit late due to a minor family crisis earlier in the day. Good weather and a very big crowd greeted us as 60163 moved around the shed yard. It's the busiest I have seen Didcot for a long time. Also got to see the superb Fire Fly in action at last and got a run in behind her. Haven't had time to sort out the pictures yet as I was out Sunday and Monday too. Only thing that annoyed us was the prices. When I checked on the internet last week it said entrance fee for adults is £9.00 for Broad gauge steam days. When we arrived we found it was £14.00 each for adults. A bit misleading we thought. Still a good day out though.

 

I am glad that people seemd to enjoy the weekend, a particualr thank you to those who came and helped the restoration of 7202 by spending money in the bar. Attached is a picture of the empty barrels, along with another two that should cause a giggle.... The second one has a strange reflection from a tender as well......

 

Well what can I say....
We've had a brilliant couple of weeks with the Tornado guys.
They are the most friendly bunch you could meet and are generous with their time and even more than generous with their loco. Once they knew the crews were happy with, to us, an unfamiliar loco, they just left us to get on with it.
My thanks to the A1 trust and in particular, David, Rob, Alexa and last but not least Peter, and especially for setting up the 1956 re-creation for young(?) Bob Judge.

The happy grin on mine, and my firemans face says it all. I dont mind that it's got too many wheels, L/H drive so I'm on the wrong side for the second photo,... it's certainly one I'm not gonna forget!

Oh well, back to washing out a pannier next week.