pete_mcfarlane Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 I heard a rumour (from a BR driver) that BR considered having another go with Mallard back in the 1980s with the aim of 140mph, but it was vetoed by the civil engineer. The logic was that the issues affecting the 1938 speed run were no longer there. The speed restriction through Peterborough is now something like 110mph rather than 15mph, there would be no engineering works North of Grantham to hold up the start of the run, and the problems with A4 big ends melting at high speed had long since been resolved. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 12, 2017 Yes great news but at what cost ? You start 100mph running and the loco is going to suffer. Yes it might have a problem as any machine would. Tornado is designed to travel as fast as this so fear not. Phil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNER4479 Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 And now the 'official' story... https://www.a1steam.com/2017/04/12/new-steam-locomotive-tornado-reaches-100mph-successful-testing-higher-speed-operations/ 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 12, 2017 And now the 'official' story... https://www.a1steam.com/2017/04/12/new-steam-locomotive-tornado-reaches-100mph-successful-testing-higher-speed-operations/ Absolutely bl####y wonderful. What a machine. Thanks G Phil 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zomboid Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 I heard a rumour (from a BR driver) that BR considered having another go with Mallard back in the 1980s with the aim of 140mph, but it was vetoed by the civil engineer. The logic was that the issues affecting the 1938 speed run were no longer there. The speed restriction through Peterborough is now something like 110mph rather than 15mph, there would be no engineering works North of Grantham to hold up the start of the run, and the problems with A4 big ends melting at high speed had long since been resolved. That's why to my mind, if and when the T1 sets a new record, it'll be a slightly different record to that which Mallard set. A machine built to 21st century standards and materials judged against one built to 1930s standards isn't really fair.Like the overall land speed record is there as a record, but it's a different beast now with jet and rocket engines as against the machines where the drive was via the wheels. If the pursuit of speed hadn't been sidelined by WW2, and then diesel becoming viable, then Mallard wouldn't have had about 80 years as the record holder anyway. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zomboid Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 And it's an impressive achievement by Tornado. I wonder how much more it had to give. 105? 110? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 wow indeed chaps, just seen it on the news a few minutes ago and came looking for the thread, well done Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckymucklebackit Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Is that MkIIIs it is hauling? Prototype for Everything thread for that video!! Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Griffin Posted April 12, 2017 Author Share Posted April 12, 2017 Well, yes there would be trouble with trespassers, but they could still announce it maybe three hours before it was due to leave York. How did you find out then Dan? It popped up on my social media this morning. So i started this thread as i couldnt see another. Its exciting times for steam locos, especially if tornado is autherised to 90mph on certain stretches of track. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Market65 Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 12, 2017 I just want to congratulate all concerned about the remarkable run by Tornado. Just for once we have a good news story concerning the railway. Again congratulations, and I'm feeling most pleased today. Best regards, Rob. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHC Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Well done to Tornado and all concerned. Now there is a certain Merchant Navy Pacific due out of Crewe soon. How about that fora loaded test run. Just for comparison...... Keith HC 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold griffgriff Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 12, 2017 Well done to Tornado and all concerned. Now there is a certain Merchant Navy Pacific due out of Crewe soon. How about that fora loaded test run. Just for comparison...... Keith HC The BBC lunchtime news featured story and there were some lovely pictures of a MN pulling out of Waterloo shown .... why I do not know but at least it reminded the public at large what a proper steam engine should look like Stuff the ducking ... I'm in the bunker already Griff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 (edited) Can I just ask why Tornado is dicussed in the Preservation thread? It is a 'new' build and not 'preserved'. Please, I'm not 'having a go' here as this is wonderful news. It is just that I own a bit of this machine and I like to think of it as not a preserved item! Thank you. Interesting point, perhaps the thread should be Preservation and Heritage. Tornado is not a preserved loco as it was brand new but it is preserving the class and it's surely a heritage project. I remember thinking when Tornado was completed that the news reports going on about it being the first new steam loco to be built in Britain since Evening Star were nonsense. There have been plenty of new steam locos built for NG railways since them. One or two of them got it more right by saying it was the first new main line steam loco but I'm not even sure of that as weren't steam locos still being built for export for some time longer? I do also wonder about the defintion of "preservation" more generally. The loco engineer of an N.G.railway that had been criticised for modifying an ex industrial loco to be able to haul passenger trains argued that the loco wasn't "preserved" as say a loco in the NRM's collection would be, but that its current occupation on a working steam railway was simply another interesting chapter in its long and varied life (that had involved a number of modificiations over the years). Surely, one of the virtues of buildng a new loco like Tornado is that it's not a historic monument as say Mallard is so it can be allowed to work as hard as its predecessors would have in service. That gives us the possibility of seeing an express steam loco doing what it was designed to do and what some us can still remember them doing up to the early 1960s . Edited April 12, 2017 by Pacific231G 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold adb968008 Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 12, 2017 The BBC lunchtime news featured story and there were some lovely pictures of a MN pulling out of Waterloo shown .... why I do not know but at least it reminded the public at large what a proper steam engine should look like Stuff the ducking ... I'm in the bunker already Griff Not just any... It was 35022, with 75079 next to it.. nice that both made it to preservation, 75079's overhaul seems to be coming along nicely. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold adb968008 Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 12, 2017 (edited) I was on the 90mph runs back in 2013 with 4464, whilst the 90mph sections were covered very fast 10-20 minutes sections, it was coupled with the speeding up from 75, and down to 75 meant that longer distances were overall covered much faster. The average speed of some trips must be in their 30-40mphs today, those 2013's averages must have been in there 60's. This meant the trips felt like expresses as there was less looping, slow line running... the train...well it ran like a train.. not a trundle... the highlight of one run was overtaking an EMU on the slow.. rather than waiting behind it, at Peterborough we were supposed to follow the slow, and run through the platforms.. on the day we stayed with the fast and took the thru roads.. even though it wasn't in the 90's.. that the higher permitted speed allowed so, meant we could, saving minutes. The A4 did it with ease, indeed it seemed to run the better for it..I'd imagine start /stop and constant braking is probably more wearing, than some long sprints uninterrupted sprints between 60-90, though obviously it's not good for every loco. Edited April 12, 2017 by adb968008 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 12, 2017 The BBC lunchtime news featured story and there were some lovely pictures of a MN pulling out of Waterloo shown .... why I do not know but at least it reminded the public at large what a proper steam engine should look like Stuff the ducking ... I'm in the bunker already Griff I thought it was quite a good choice of archive clip (even if selected unknowingly) since the MN was from (probably) the last class of loco to do the ton ... 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D854_Tiger Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 I doubt an extra 15mph on its top speed would incur much greater maintenance cost. Sending WC class and Merchant Navys around backwater Southern commuter routes on the other hand. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D854_Tiger Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Wow can't wait now for this summer and Rood Ashton Hall at 90 mph on the Shakespeare Express (tender first). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 12, 2017 Good to see that the A1 Trust folk are taking this sensibly and are now reviewing the impact of really fast running on the engine - once that process is complete and they're satisfied that the 10% overspeed was successful then we might be seeing a justifiable 90mph service speed. But that in turn raises some interesting questions about sustained firing rates (although not impossible ones I think) together with others about the suitability of stock and even more importantly braking abilities. It's one thing to get up to high speed - it's quite another to stop from such speeds so there might well be some interesting computations of brake power going on although in my view having come across poor calculations relating to Mk 2 coach braking in the past I would be far more inclined to look for practical tests (and wonder if any braking trials also took place last night?). 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PhilH Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 12, 2017 Dave Proctor, the fireman last night described the firing in one word...'murder'. Having said that his usual job is driving 66's out of Didcot..... 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wild Boar Fell Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Good to see that the A1 Trust folk are taking this sensibly and are now reviewing the impact of really fast running on the engine - once that process is complete and they're satisfied that the 10% overspeed was successful then we might be seeing a justifiable 90mph service speed. But that in turn raises some interesting questions about sustained firing rates (although not impossible ones I think) together with others about the suitability of stock and even more importantly braking abilities. It's one thing to get up to high speed - it's quite another to stop from such speeds so there might well be some interesting computations of brake power going on although in my view having come across poor calculations relating to Mk 2 coach braking in the past I would be far more inclined to look for practical tests (and wonder if any braking trials also took place last night?). Possibly some of the logic behind the new A1SLT Mk3 charter set? I will admit though, I don't know how the braking performance of Mk2s & Mk3s compare, but aren't Mk3's fitted with WSP? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold tomparryharry Posted April 12, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 12, 2017 Still not as fast as Truro.... In taxi, passport in hand..... Ian 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyram Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 And it's an impressive achievement by Tornado. I wonder how much more it had to give. 105? 110? Why stop there? 127mph anyone??? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foulounoux Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 reference the is it right to be in the preservation thread I often have to point out that this is a modern classic car not a vintage car being only 10yrs old (reg doesn't reflect its age ) and fitted with modern engine brakes etc It also backs up the questions over whether tornado should be performing at these speeds ...... Yes yes and yes. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 I wonder where it could travel to non-stop; Kings X to Doncaster perhaps? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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