By Cedric Johns
Stopped for repairs, Peppercorn A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado has been taken out of traffic until the end of the year after it failed during its 90mph scheduled run with the ‘Ebor Flyer’ on April 14.
In a statement issued by The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, spokesman Mark Allatt explained: “Following discussions with our operator DB Cargo, the trustees of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust have decided to withdraw No. 60163 for the remainder of 2018 in order to complete the repairs and rectification of the locomotive to DBC’s satisfaction.
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“We will be advising passengers booked on ‘The Christmas Border Raider’ on Saturday, December 1 on arrangements for this train.”
In addition, Tornado had been booked to work the Linlithgow-Edinburgh-York Christmas shopping train operated by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society on Saturday, November 3 and also Pathfinder Tours’ Birmingham to Chester ‘Chester Chuffer’ on Saturday, December 15.
Explaining the reasons for the popular locomotive’s prolonged absence from the main line, Mark commented: “The repair has taken longer to complete than we anticipated due to a number of factors, including having the locomotive based a long way from the trust’s own engineering resources and that the parts of the British mechanical engineering industry that we rely on being very busy. This resulted in long lead times to have specialist machining and welding work done.
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