The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust would like to apologise for the disruption caused to passengers travelling on ‘The Ebor Flyer’ on Saturday 14th April 2018 and passengers on other trains, particularly Virgin Trains East Coast customers, impacted by No. 60163 Tornado’s breakdown. The locomotive came to a stop just south of Sandy with a broken combination lever. Investigations have so far revealed that this was due to the middle piston valve overheating and binding in the valve chest. The root cause is not yet fully clear, but it is likely that insufficient lubrication was an issue. Investigations continue to establish the cause of failure in the lubrication system and any contributing factors.
Tornado has run many miles since winter maintenance with no obvious issues in this area. Whilst we have been asked if the higher speed was a factor in the failure, at present we believe it not to be. It probably happened slightly earlier in the journey than if running at lower speed, but it most likely would still have happened.
(the rest of the press release concerns cancellations, refunds, etc)
Called in at the NVR for coffee on Monday on my way down the A1, (It has more interest than the standard motorway type services), and was surprised to see a familiar face:-
The cover to the centre valve rod was removed, and some dismantling was going on underneath.
I had to travel back on Tuesday (NVR does a very good full breakfast), and more parts had been dismantled.
Reassuring to note though that Gresley and Bullied weren't the only ones who had trouble with the inside one on their three cylinder machines - Pepp obviously got things wrong there too.
As of 16:30 today the loco was sitting with wisps of steam drifting from the snifting valve and the centre cylinder cover removed.
The nice young man in the station restaurant said that she had 'failed an examination'.
May be gossip, but I didn't have time to enquire further.
Visited the 'Nene Valley Hospital for Sick Engines' again yesterday, as a break for some horrible driving conditions on the A1.
Tornado was in the same place with the centre cylinder cover removed. No evidence of steam though!
In passing I should mention the excellent blackberry crumble that the NVR cafe was able to provide, and to recommend a refreshment stop on the NVR as a way of putting some money into the railway's coffers and a break from the noise and irritation increasingly associated with 'roadside services'.
There's a photo of Tornado sat on the Barrow Hill turntable on the A1 facebook page, word has it, she did a 75mph test run with a train and diesel on the back last night.
I don't know when 75 MPH was achieved. I was on nights last night and signalled it down from Grantham to Doncaster and it didn't get above 55 MPH anywhere (we have several speed checks enroute).
It picked up an ECS train at Belmont Yard then went to York with a diesel on the back, then York to the Sheffield district (probably Barrow Hill) hauled light steam on the back of the train with the diesel on the front.
