THE A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has launched one final effort to take ownership of No. 60163 Tornado’s tender.
The trust’s 163 Pacifics Club fundraising campaign to purchase the 101mph locomotive’s tender has already reached 95% of its 163-member target to raise a total of £200,000. It now has more than 150 members.
By 2014 the trust had repaid all the £1million debt needed to complete Tornado in 2008 and funded the conversion of its support coach, BR Mk.1 BCK No. E21249.
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However, the tender is currently owned by William Cook Cast Products Ltd, the trust’s principal sponsor. The firm’s chairman, Sir Andrew Cook CBE, offered to fund the construction of the tender in 2006, allowing the funds being raised to be spent on the engine.
The tender is leased to the trust under a 15-year loan agreement, which will come to an end in 2021.
The tender is a development of those built for the original Peppercorn class A1s – mainly due to the different operating environment on the modern network. Due to the lack of surviving steam infrastructure, water capacity is at a premium and so Tornado’s tender carries 6200 gallons, as opposed to 5000 gallons, and seven tons of coal, rather than nine tons in the original A1s.
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