Taking train watching to its logical conclusion

I’ve had friends (particularly back in South Africa) who were and are ardent railfans (train watchers or enthusiasts). They’d travel many hundreds of miles to visit places where old trains might be seen. South Africa was still using hundreds of steam locomotives until the early 1980’s, and railfans from all over the world came to view them in action.

Enthusiasts would arrange tours of the train workshops in Salt River, Cape Town, to view the behemoths as they were stripped and maintained.

I’ve traveled many thousands of miles behind these steam locomotives, and whilst it was a perfectly usable method of transportation, I’m afraid I never became enamored of it. The smoke used to get into the carriages and deposit soot and grit all over everything. I found that when I showered after such a journey, black greasy soot would flow out of my hair and mess up the shower!

Anyway, a group of railway enthusiasts in England have taken their passion for things steam-driven to the logical extreme: they’ve built the first new steam locomotive to be made in Britain since the 1960’s. It’s an amazing achievement, particularly since it was all done through private fund-raising and the dedicated work of hundreds of enthusiasts. One might call it the ultimate expression of a boys’ club and their singular toy!

Enthusiasts painstakingly assembled the Tornado, based on a design that vanished from the network in the 1960s, over the course of 18 years.

And their dream was at last fully realised when the engine carried its first passengers on the historic Great Central Railway in Loughborough, Leicestershire.

The Tornado, the first steam loco to be made in this country since 1960, has been undergoing tests at the GCR for the past two months.

The government’s railway inspectorate declared it fit to pull passenger trains after it reportedly performed “faultlessly” in a series of trials.

And today the first fare-paying members of the public to climb aboard were taken on a trouble-free 16-mile round-trip to Leicester and back.

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, a group of rail enthusiasts based in Darlington, raised nearly three-million pounds to build the Tornado.

The engine is based on the Pacific locomotives designed by Arthur H Peppercorn for the London and North Eastern Railway in the late 1950s.

A1 Trust chairman Mark Allatt said: “This is a day we have been working towards for so long. It’s a really big milestone for us and the engine.

“It’s great that we can finally start pulling passengers. It’s a real chance for people to be a part of history, and we’re all extremely proud.”

I’m glad they’re happy. Certainly it’s a monstrous effort, now crowned with success. Good luck to them – and next time I visit England, I might just jump aboard for a ride, to remember my South African steam journeys.

Peter