Tornado Steam Train To Carry First Passengers From York to Newcastle In Maiden Voyage

Published on January 31st, 2009

Tornado Steam Train To Carry First Passengers From York In Newcastle In Maiden Voyage | Sky News — What a weird idea!

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.

Found by William Reisong.

9 users responded in " Tornado Steam Train To Carry First Passengers From York to Newcastle In Maiden Voyage "

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# 1 Troublemaker said, on February 1st, 2009 at 12:12 am

If things keep going they way they are… this will be considered high-tech transportation in a couple of years.

# 2 Scott said, on February 1st, 2009 at 2:34 am

That should read, York to Newcastle.

# 3 joaoPT said, on February 1st, 2009 at 3:57 am

Considering that USA is sitting on more coal than it can burn…

Well this is a “memory lane” type of endeavor. But I wonder, how hard will be to modernize the steam locomotive: Trap coal emissions (particles mainly, but also CO2), modernize the piston system, the burning and heating… etc…
That I would like to see.

# 4 pedro said, on February 1st, 2009 at 4:05 am

Al Gore would approve.

# 5 bobbo said, on February 1st, 2009 at 4:07 am

While traveling across England I was struck by how much torn up rail tracks there were–ie leaving the bare ground of the old right of way. “Years Ago” you could take a train(s) to just about anywhere in England. Cars/Roads destroyed this system. Pros and Cons to every approach.

# 6 RTaylor said, on February 1st, 2009 at 5:46 am

Steam locomotives requires a lot of maintenance, so I doubt this is a trend. It’s still nice to see the old girl moving again. Trains are my favorite way to travel. Modern aircrafts are torture chambers unless you can afford first class.

# 7 QB said, on February 1st, 2009 at 6:04 am

This looked like fun. Here is their website which gives more info. And it wouldn’t be the interweb with a youtube of the launch.

Thanks for the link.

# 8 Joe B said, on February 1st, 2009 at 11:31 am

re: joaoPT said, on February 1st, 2009 at 3:57 am
Considering that USA is sitting on more coal than it can burn…
…how hard will it be to modernize the steam locomotive.

In the early 1980’s, such a steam locomotive was planned when it looked like the price of oil was going to continue to rise and the threat of continued “oil embargo’s”

It was to called the ACE 3000. Their goal was to “…develop a steam locomotive which was just as simple to operate and economical to maintain as a diesel-electric locomotive.”

more info can be found here:

http://trainweb.org/tusp/ult.html

[Ed. PLEASE discard the www in links, the site won't display them properly otherwise]

# 9 Glenn E. said, on February 2nd, 2009 at 1:43 am

There’s no mention of what it burns to heat the water it carries. If it’s oil, then it’s no where as efficient as a diesel engine. And if it’s coal (as I suspect), then it’s just adding to the air pollution problem, out of some nostalgic novelty. What hypocrites the UK government is. All this Global Warming scare came from them, years back, when Margret Thacher had had enough of the Coal Miners striking. She wanted the Britain to go Nuclear, so she pushed for UK scientists to demonize coal use. And eventually this lunacy of hers spread worldwide. But now, apparently, a coal fired railway service is OK!!

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