Tornado Railtours has announced that 60163 Tornado is no longer available to haul ‘The North Briton’ on Saturday the 9th February 2019.

The run from the East Midlands to Carlisle via the Settle & Carlisle Railway has been postponed to September 2019.

Following its test run earlier in January, it was found that 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, it was noticed also that Tornado was slightly off-beat, which is something that was impossible to detect until the locomotive had left the 25mph restriction on the Nene Valley Railway.

The Trust believes that the damage was caused during a priming (water carry over) incident whilst operating a photo charter train on the Nene Valley Railway. However, it was not possible to identify the cause of the damage to the motion bush without significant dismantling of the engine.

After work to fix 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 annual recertification prior to returning to the main line.

Despite the best efforts of the Director of Engineering and his team of staff, DB Cargo has advised the trust that there is insufficient time to complete the necessary processes and procedures to allow the test run which will enable Tornado to haul ‘The North Briton’ on Saturday 9th February.

What did the officials say?

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust said:

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.

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