MIXED BLESSINGS FOR TORNADO AT NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS
2008-built ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado’s visit to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway was a double-edged sword, with the locomotive’s first trains cancelled because of snow. The Peppercorn ‘Pacific’ followed in the footsteps of Royal Scot and Flying Scotsman in headlining the NYMR’s seasonopening event (March 3-11), but heavy snowfall, amid ‘The Beast from the East’, forced the railway to cancel the ‘A1’s’ first weekend of services on March 3/4. The ensuing thaw meant that Tornado was able to complete the rest of its scheduled turns. Tornado’s departure by rail, to the Severn Valley Railway’s Spring Steam Gala on March 16-18, was halted after a lorry struck a bridge on the Esk Valley line. The ‘A1’ instead reached the SVR by road. Despite the issues, No. 60163 reached a major milestone at the NYMR, achieving 100,000 miles in service while hauling the last train of the day on March 11. Appropriately, this took place on the railway where WD 2-10-0 No. 3672 ‘Dame Vera Lynn’ became the first steam locomotive in preservation to attain the same figure, in 1998.