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    Breaking News


    All Aboard For Tornado's Debut


    The first main line steam train to be built in Britain for almost 50 years sets out today on her maiden voyage from York to Newcastle.

    All Aboard For Tornado's Debut



    The Tornado is a new Peppercorn class A1 Pacific locomotive - a type scrapped in the 1960s when diesel trains were introduced.

    It has been built by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust in Darlington, which raised £3m.

    Tornado made a successful test run on Wednesday and was given the go-ahead to haul a passenger train on the Network Rail main line.

    The chairman of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, Mark Allatt, said the debut run was the end of a project that many said could never be completed.

    "In 1990 a group was formed with a vision and the determination to make it succeed - to build and operate a Peppercorn class A1 Pacific steam locomotive for main line and preserved railway use," he said.

    Mr Allatt said the project's success was thanks to sponsors and donors - of which there were more than 2,000 - along with the hard work of volunteers and contractors.

    The engine will make return trips from York to Newcastle on the East Coast Main Line over the weekend for supporters.

    Others will be able to buy tickets for Tornado's first trip to London's Kings Cross on the East Coast Main Line on February 7.

    The class A1s were designed by Arthur H Peppercorn for the London and North Eastern Railway and 49 were built in 1948-49 by British Railways



    My home town Darlington , where the railways were born , a great achievemnt ,,and its got the worlds poxiest rail museum , sad.

  • #2
    that's awesome..

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    • #3
      Originally posted by dundonrl View Post
      that's awesome..

      It is mate , it is ;)

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      • #4
        Steam power rolls into London


        Britain turned back the clock almost 50 years as a £3 million steam train chugged into London. Skip related content
        Related photos / videos
        Steam train sets off from Darlington headed ...

        The Tornado, the first mainline steam locomotive to be built in this country for nearly five decades, steamed from Darlington to London's Kings Cross at the end of a week in which Britain's modern-day rail services have been severely disrupted.

        The apple-green engine, which was built with donations from enthusiasts over 18 years, pulled the Talisman train into London half-an-hour later than expected due to electrical problems near Peterborough.

        Stopping to pick up passengers in York - and to refill its water tanks there, in Retford and in Peterborough Yard - the steam train took more than six hours to complete the 250-mile route.

        The journey was far longer than the regular 8am train operated along the same route by National Express East Coast, which was delayed by seven minutes and took less than half the time.

        Hundreds of onlookers, many of whom had been waiting for more than two hours, crowded platform one at Kings Cross as the first steam train to enter the capital in more than 40 years arrived.

        Passengers cheered and waved as the steam filled the roof of the station.

        Many of its 500 passengers said they were delighted that they had chosen style over speed.

        John Warren, one of the first people to step off the train, said the engine was "absolutely phenomenal" and that more steam trains should be running on our tracks.

        Built by a team of volunteers over nearly 20 years the A1 60163 Tornado is the 50th Peppercorn class A1 locomotive all of which were designed to cope with the heaviest passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line.

        The train, which is expected to become "as legendary as the Flying Scotsman and Mallard", can reach a top speed of 100mph and will enter traffic on the nation's main line network on April 18.


        ;);)

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        • #5
          It would be interesting to see someone attempt to build an all modern version of a steam engine, and see how it competes with modern diesel and electric trains.

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          • #6
            i don,t see steam locomotives come back in the same arrangment they were before.
            1. i had a ride in one, firs thing you see right away is first pull, it has to jerk to give all cars momentum, than it picks up and pulls, electric drive ones you might not even notice when they start moving.
            2. the whole combo, boiler, burner, fuel, is too complicated and big compare to diesel electric, i remember late models of stem trains, they burned powedered coal, fed into the boiler by screw drive, they burned cleaner, elliminated the need for a guy or two shoveling coal into the burner. but still compare to electric drive they were huge, and inefficiant.

            the only way i see steam power come back is steam turbine running generator, that feeds traction motors. if someone makes sonic resonance boiler, or cavitational heater work with steam turbine,(both proven to be over 100% efficiant) than it might have a shot. imo
            "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" B. Franklin

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            • #7
              Maybe not Omon , but the nostalgia of it all is good , when i was a young boy ,, 3 years ago we used to stand on a wiremesh bridge ,to look at the trains , and the drivers knew we were there and they would always open the throttle , a huge cloud of black smoke and embers ,straight up the kyber pass

              Mum would always know where we had been , and the inevitable clip round the ear was had for the dirtying of clothes ,,, but it was worth it ,

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              • #8
                Originally posted by tankie View Post
                Maybe not Omon , but the nostalgia of it all is good ,
                on that i agree, deffinatly,

                sentimental values can,t be mesured by numbers.
                "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" B. Franklin

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                • #9
                  A tangent, are there trains using turbine engine driving an electric motor like the diesel-electric trains?

                  Also, I have been reading about old steam warships, specifically the pre-dreadnaughts. Were there teams of people in the boiler room shoveling coal into the fire box to keep the ship running? That must have been an awful job.
                  "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by gunnut View Post

                    Also, I have been reading about old steam warships, specifically the pre-dreadnaughts. Were there teams of people in the boiler room shoveling coal into the fire box to keep the ship running? That must have been an awful job.
                    Have to ask Rusty about that G/N

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                      A tangent, are there trains using turbine engine driving an electric motor like the diesel-electric trains?

                      .
                      yes
                      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_tur...ric_locomotive
                      "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" B. Franklin

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by omon View Post
                        the only way i see steam power come back is steam turbine running generator, that feeds traction motors. if someone makes sonic resonance boiler, or cavitational heater work with steam turbine,(both proven to be over 100% efficiant) than it might have a shot. imo
                        Someone will have to explain to me how they break the first law of thermodynamics. If this were true, we would have solved the world's energy problems forever.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by eocoolj View Post
                          Someone will have to explain to me how they break the first law of thermodynamics. .If this were true, we would have solved the world's energy problems forever
                          may be they don,t know the law exists? so it doesn,t limit them, ;)
                          do 1,2..lot cover sound and resonance??

                          google those 2 things you,ll see how.
                          Last edited by omon; 09 Feb 09,, 21:47.
                          "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" B. Franklin

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                          • #14
                            Why bring back this dinosaur? Nostalgia? What's it burning, coal?
                            "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Ironduke View Post
                              Why bring back this dinosaur? Nostalgia? What's it burning, coal?

                              The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust ,, google this for answers I/D , but basically ,coal burning and bigger boilers for more water ,and i think dinosaur or not ,good for them ,and maybe the same reason some people keep ancient cars on the roads ,and rebuild them ;)
                              Last edited by tankie; 10 Feb 09,, 13:15.

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