The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has announced that the overhaul of A1 No. 60163 Tornado is running behind schedule and has cancelled tours due to this.

The delays are focussed in three areas. Firstly, the boiler is now due back at the end of May, rather than the beginning as originally planned.

Tornado’s boiler needs additional work on the firebox tubeplate and the platework near the foundation ring – however, the Trust says this is not unexpected with how busy Tornado has been in the past 14 years.

It has also been found by the Trust that more work is needed on the locomotive’s frames. This is now complete, but with the final bolts going in and painting and reassembly taking place, the Trust is awaiting confirmation on when the driving wheels are due back.

All of the other wheelsets have returned back to Loughborough.

The final challenge has been the work to get ETCS signalling fitted to the locomotive, which will be essential for tours running out of and into London Kings Cross. The design work has run behind but this is now nearly finished and physical work is now underway.

Sadly, these delays has impacted the tour diary and The Fen and Fells Flyer has been cancelled, with the Trust wanting to run the train in 2023.

The Yorkshire Pullman, set to run on the 9th July 2022 between London Kings Cross and Harrogate, has also been postponed until April 2023 – more info on the new date here.

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