Tornado – still aiming for ‘raf100’

Nearly two months on from Tornado’s failure near Sandy (SR479) there’s still no official answer on why part of the ‘A1’s’ motion broke up on its first public 90mph run. Neither has the new-build 4-6-2 yet ‘returned to the fold’. What there is, though, is the aim to still have No. 60163 back on the main line in time for the ‘RAF100’ trip from Lincoln to King’s Cross on July 10. Given Tornado’s association with the world’s oldest independent air force, it’s easy to see why. It’s also easy to relate to the sentiments expressed by the trust’s Huw Parker; writing in issue 50 of The Communication Cord that landed with supporters in June, he said he could only speculate that 2018 “has turned out to be our very own annus horribilis!” That was not only owing to April 14’s problems but also disappointments earlier in the season, including a TPWS failure and even the weather. Yet with a number of trips postponed (including the prestigious ‘Yorkshire Pullman’ planned for June 2), the ‘Ebor Flyer’ failure and the Peppercorn ‘Pacific’s’ subsequent period out of action at the Nene Valley is surely at the heart of that. As of June 10, investigations into the failure by both the A1 Trust and First Class Partnerships remained ongoing – trust ops director Graeme Bunker said the former is expected to “conclude towards the end of June, and fully conclude when the locomotive returns to operation”. The latter is expected at the end of June or early July. When it comes to the cause therefore, Graeme said his organisation continued “to work with our industry colleagues and [we] do not wish to prejudge the various investigations. However, as we have said before, areas of focus are on an alignment issue, clearances (particularly around valve rings) and contamination in the lubrication, and checking that there were no issues in the delivery of lubrication to the valve chests.” Nothing had yet been found to change the view that the failure was not speedrelated, he reported. What then for future 90mph running? The trust has already said (SR480) that it had no more such trips planned this year, and Director of Engineering David Elliott reports in TCC that it “will at the very least not be until 2019”. Can the organisation confirm then, that 90mph is still its aim for Tornado? “This is still the trust’s aim,” Graeme responded, “but clearly we must continue to review the wider situation and the events of April 14 before making any decisions.”