THE TORNADO No. 54 August 2014 TELEGRAPH Jack Beeston Tornado passes Cullompton on the return leg of ‘The Devon Belle’. l DRIVER EXPERIENCE NEWS BRIEFS COURSES AT BARROW HILL Welcome - The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, ... to issue No. 54 l ‘THE DEVON BELLE’ – On 25th in conjunction with Barrow Hill of The Tornado August, Tornado’s destination was Exeter. Roundhouse, is pleased to announce Telegraph. Tornado Starting down the winding Great Western that Tornado will be taking part in started the ‘Berks & Hants’ line, taking water at driver experience days on Tuesday month at the Newbury, the train then turned left on to 30th September, Wednesday 1st Bluebell Railway, the single track branch to Yeovil Pen Mill and Thursday 2nd October 2014. her fi rst visit since before using the spur to Yeovil Junction Opportunities to drive and fi re Tornado her epoch making arrival there are very rare indeed and places are with the fi rst inbound steam and joined the Southern Railway’s West strictly limited. You can fi nd full details tour since the railway was re- of England Main Line. Gaining Exeter via here. connected at east Grinstead. On Central Station, the train arrived at St. 25th August Tornado revisited the Davids for passengers to alight and enjoy l No. 61306 JOINS THE West Country with ‘The Devon the city for a few hours. PARTY - Retired businessman and Belle’ from London to Exeter – a The return run was over Whiteball, long-term London & North Eastern grand day out in less than perfect through Taunton to Castle Cary where the Railway enthusiast David Buck has weather! train re-joined the outward route. In all acquired LNER-designed Thompson graham.langer@ a1steam.com a highly successful day marking what will class B1 No. 61306 Mayfl ower from the Editor of The Tornado Telegraph be Tornado’s last run out on the main line Boden family for an undisclosed sum. wearing the BR blue livery. The locomotive will be managed on ➤ behalf of David Buck by The A1 Steam Stephen Garratt Locomotive Trust. The Thompson class B1 two-cylinder mixed traffic 4-6-0s steam locomotives were designed for medium mixed traffic work by Edward Thompson. Introduced in 1942, 274 were built for the LNER and 136 were built for British Railways (BR) after nationalisation in 1948 with the class eventually totalling 410. The B1s operated throughout LNER territory, with the first normal withdrawal occurring in November 1961 with the remaining locomotives were withdrawn between 1962 and 1967. Two B1s have been preserved, these being No. 61264 and No. 61306. No. 61306 was built in 1948 by the North British Locomotive Company. It was allocated to Hull Botanic Gardens Depot until June 1959, when it was transferred to nearby Hull Dairycoates Tornado is seen at East Grinstead on the Bluebell Railway. Depot, where it remained until June 1967, when it was transferred to Low the tender. Since the time it has been l GET (A TENDER) BEHIND Moor Depot, Bradford. Withdrawn under the care of Neil Boden and has TORNADO – Join ‘The 163 Pacifics in September 1967, No. 61306 was always been an exemplary locomotive Club’ and make Tornado debt free. privately purchased for preservation at both in terms of the high quality of its The first debts to be repaid by the Steamtown in Carnforth. There it was turn out and its operational pedigree. Trust were the bridging and personal painted into LNER Apple Green Livery Having only completed around loans that financed the final dash to and given the number No. 1306 and 2,000 miles since its last overhaul, No. completion. In July 2013 we were able the name Mayflower. In 1978, No. 1306 61306 will be available for private hire to announce the early repayment of the moved to the Great Central Railway by heritage railways and for use on £500,000 Bearer Bond at the end of the in Leicestershire, where it remained main line charter trains. It has initially 2013. The final step to make Tornado until 1989, when it was taken out of moved to the North Norfolk Railway in debt-free is to purchase 60163’s tender, service for a ten-year overhaul at Hull Sheringham. which is currently on a 15 year lease Dairycoates and subsequently the from William Cook Cast Products Ltd. Nene Valley Railway. In 2006 a further l TORNADO AT THE BLUEBELL ‘The 163 Pacifics Club’ is starting to overhaul was undertaken at Boden Rail – No. 60163 completed an excellent gain traction with 22% of the £200,000 Engineering Ltd, Washwood Heath and sojourn at the Bluebell Railway at the already donated or pledged – but there the locomotive returned to the main beginning of August having taken her is still a long way to go. line in 2012 as No. 61306 in Apple turn working timetabled trains as well as Green livery with ‘British Railways’ on special services. How you can help: We need to raise £200,000 by 2021 to purchase Tornado’s tender. Following the success of our Regular and Dedicated Donation schemes for the construction of Tornado, Ian McDonald the Trustees have on a similar method for the purchase of the tender. However, instead of “an A1 for the price of a pint” and “use your loaf”, we’ve decided to raise the funds in a different way, “The 163 Pacifics Club”. Although Tornado carries the number ‘60163’, her pre- nationalisation LNER number would have been ‘163’. If 163 people were to donate £10pm over the eight years until we need to purchase the tender (or alternatively make a one-off donation of £960) with the addition of Gift Aid (£2.50pm or £240 one-off) this would raise £195,600. As with the previous schemes, this No. 61306, wearing apple green, is seen at Stayground Crossing, initiative comes with benefits for those Wymondham. who generously take part: ➤ l A numbered certificate (1-163) donation form today. Thank you. build a new Gresley class P2 ‘Mikado’ recording the details of the donation No. 2007 Prince of Wales continues apace. and the number/name of your l ONLINE STORE NEWS - See Over 360 people joined The Founders favourite pacific from the Gresley A3s/ our online store for everything for Club and more than 530 have signed A4s, Thompson A1/1s and Peppercorn the Tornado enthusiast, from pens to up as Covenantors and the dedicated A1s. models, children’s t shirts to adult fleece. donation scheme has already raised over Contact [email protected] for details £60,000. New components available l Name inscribed on the official Roll of smoke box number plates carried by for sponsorship will become available of Honour in Darlington Locomotive Tornado for £200 as construction progresses. – contact Works which will detail the pacific dedicated.donations@p2steam. sponsored. l PHOTOGRAPHIC com for more information. All of COMPETITION – During 2014 this means that pledges to the project l Entry into a draw for a main line we will be running a photographic have now potentially passed the £1.3m footplate-ride on Tornado. competition. We will pick a winning milestone – however we need to at entry from images taken of Tornado least maintain this progress if we are l It really is that simple! With your during the year with the lucky contestant to complete No. 2007 in our target of help Tornado could be debt free landing a brace of premier dining tickets seven years and raise over £700,000 with her paid-for tender behind on one of our trains in 2015. every year. You can see all the latest by 2021. Please complete the l P2 PROGRESS – The project to news on the P2 website. TOURS DIARY 2014 l 13th and 14th September– Nene Valley Railway Gala The Trust respectfully requests that anyone wanting to see Tornado follows the rules of the railway and only goes l 27th and 28th September – ‘Barrow Hill Live’ at where permitted. Barrow Hill Roundhouse Please carefully check Tornado’s dates of operation and services on the any Heritage line visits using the relevant l 4th October– Annual Convention – Barrow Hill website links below as actual dates/times of operation Roundhouse may vary. Preserved railways and tour companies with whom we are working in 2014: The Nene Valley Railway, tel: 01780 784444 web: www.nvr.org.uk Barrow Hill Roundhouse, tel: 01246 472450 web: www.barrowhill.org HELP THE TRUST Published by Your support as Covenantors, Donors and Volunteers remains vital. The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust Darlington Locomotive Works l DONATIONS – We continue to encourage donations of all shapes and Hopetown Lane sizes (every pound counts). DARLINGTON l COVENANTORS – We always welcome new Covenantors as we have DL3 6RQ overhauls and repairs to fund and still need to finance the balance of the support coach conversion – click here www.a1steam.com l VOLUNTEERS – Do you have skills that could help the Trust? We can always use extra pairs of hands. If you enjoy meeting people, please [email protected] consider joining our merchandising team at events and on tours. If your talents involve engineering, locomotive cleaning, or back office work, we can Edited by always find something for you to do. Contact [email protected] for [email protected] more details. l LEGACY PROGRAMME – We now have a Legacy Giving facility – click here Designed by Debbie Nolan for details. Picture Editor l 163 CLUB - join The 163 Pacifics Club to complete the financing of [email protected] Tornado. See the details here..