‘SCOTSMAN’ AND TORNADO PAIR UP AT NENE VALLEY RAILWAY

Two of preservation’s most famous locomotives were in action at the Nene Valley Railway at the same time last month, completely – and literally – by accident.

The end of September became an impromptu LNER ‘Pacific’ gathering at the NVR, with both ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado and ‘A3’ No. 60103 Flying Scotsman running together over the Peterborough-Wansford line.

Ironically, the unexpected pairing came about as the result of both locomotives’ respective in-service failures while hauling main line railtours.

Flying Scotsman failed with a hot axlebox at Peterborough while hauling the ‘Cathedrals Express’ on October 18 last year , and was duly taken to Wansford where the fault was rectified. By way of a thank you from the National Railway Museum for hosting the locomotive while it underwent repairs, No. 60103 returned for public services on September 27-October 1. It was the ‘A3’s’ first working visit to the railway since 1994, when it was similarly turned out in its latter-day BR guise.

New-build ‘A1’ Tornado was also running on September 27, albeit not on service trains, as the locomotive underwent further running-in trials following repairs to its inside cylinder and valve gear.

The Peppercorn ‘Pacific’ has been at the NVR since April 14 when it shed its inside motion at high speed during its first public 90mph railtour, and it returned to steam for the first time in five months in late September.