LNER Peppercorn Class A1 60163 "Tornado"

## LNER Class A1 Peppercorn 60163 "Tornado"

Tornado on the East Coast Main Line in 2016

LNER Peppercorn Class A1 No. 60163 "Tornado" is a 4-6-2 steam locomotive completed in 2008 to an original design by Arthur Peppercorn. It is the first new build British mainline steam locomotive since 1960, and the only Peppercorn Class A1 in existence after the original batch were scrapped. In 2017, *Tornado* became the first steam locomotive to officially reach 100 mph (160 km/h) on British tracks in over 50 years.

After the project was founded by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust in 1990, construction of *Tornado* began in 1994 and mostly took place at Darlington Works, with other components manufactured elsewhere. The project was financed through fundraising initiatives, public donations, sponsorship deals, and hiring out *Tornado* itself for special services. The locomotive was granted its mainline certificate in January 2009, having been designed in compliance with modern safety and certification standards*. Tornado* has worked on heritage and mainline trains across Britain since 2008. In 2022, it was withdrawn for overhaul.

## Background

In 1990, the charitable A1 Steam Locomotive Trust was founded with the intention of building a new LNER Peppercorn Class A1 steam locomotive and the 50th member of its class. The original 49 Peppercorn A1s were built in 1948 and 1949 at Doncaster and Darlington Works at £16,000 each. They were initially ordered for operation on the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) to a design by its chief mechanical engineer Arthur Peppercorn, but were delivered after the company had been nationalised and became British Railways. The Peppercorn A1s ran services on the East Coast Main Line until the last one was scrapped in September 1966 after a comparatively short service of 15 years. None of them was preserved.

*Tornado* was intended to be built as the next Peppercorn A1 and not a restoration nor replica, and was assigned the next available number in the class after No. 60162 "Saint Johnstoun". It was designed as an evolved member of its class, incorporating various improvements that would have occurred had steam continued in Britain. It was the first new build steam locomotive on British railways since BR Standard Class 9F 92220 *Evening Star* was completed in 1960.

The name *Tornado* was chosen in honour of the Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado air crews flying at the time in the Gulf War. The honour of choosing the name was given to a £50,000 sponsor of the project. In January 1995, officers of the Royal Air Force presented the *Tornado* nameplates to the trust at Tyseley Locomotive Works at a frame laying ceremony. The smokebox door carries the identification plate of 51 A, the code for Darlington shed, and the cab side carries a builder's plate No. 2195 Darlington 2008. The front buffer beam carries the designation A1.

On 19 February 2009, *Tornado* was officially named by the Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall and Dorothy Mather, Peppercorn's widow, at York railway station. The ceremony is marked by a plaque located below the nameplate. *Tornado* then pulled the Royal Train to Leeds.

## Project milestones

* 1990: A1 Steam Locomotive Trust formally launched, 11 November
* 1994: First and last components ceremonially presented (a bogie swivel pin and a regulator nut)
* 1994: Construction starts (frame plates rolled at Scunthorpe), 22 April
* 1995: Nameplates presented at the frame laying ceremony, January
* 1995: First wheel cast
* 1996: Three cylinder castings unveiled at Tyseley, 25 May
* 1997: Frame displayed at the Great Hall at the National Railway Museum, March
* 1997: *Tornado* unveiled at Darlington Locomotive Works
* 1999: Smokebox door complete, *Tornado's* symbolic "face"
* 2000: Construction over 50% complete (Summer)
* 2000: Wheelset added (Autumn)
* 2004: The book value of *Tornado* components reaches 1 million pounds
* 2004: First synchronous smooth wheel motion, 25 August
* 2007: Boiler/firebox assembly fitted to frame, June
* 2008: First static steaming, January
* 2008: Tender completed, February
* 2008: *Tornado* publicly launched, Darlington Locomotive Works, 1 August 2008
* 2008: First passenger train hauled, preserved Great Central Railway. Loughborough, 21 September
* 2008: Main line testing begins, National Railway Museum, York, 4 November
* 2008: Third and final main line test run completed, York, 19 November
* 2008: First full livery unveiled (minus nameplates), LNER Apple Green, York, 13 December
* 2009: *The Peppercorn Pioneer*, the first passenger journey on the UK Main Line, 31 January 2009
* 2009: Tornado was officially named by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, 19 February
* 2009: BBC *Top Gear* Race filmed, 25 April 2009
* 2009: Institution of Mechanical Engineers present Tornado with Engineering Heritage Award at York, 23 May 2009
* 2009: Reaches 10,000 miles (16,000 km) on Torbay Express, 5 July
* 2009: *Tornado* is called on to rescue stranded commuters in Kent after heavy snow fall disrupts the electrical supply
* 2010: Beats previous record for fastest steam hauled railtour over Shap summit by 19 seconds, 24 June
* 2010: Returns to York NRM for maintenance and to be repainted to lined "Brunswick Green" December
* 2011: Boiler returned to DB Meiningen for repairs January
* 2017: Worked first scheduled passenger trains on the Settle and Carlisle line between Appleby and Skipton
* 2017: Became the first steam engine since 1967 to run at 100mph in the UK

## Design

### Initial research and drafting

On hearing of the project in October 1991, Argentine locomotive engineer Livio Dante Porta contacted the trust, hailing the project as the start of a "renaissance of steam technology". In 1992, he submitted *A proposal for the Tornado project* in which he presented to the trust several design improvements that could be made to *Tornado* that, while preserving the outer form, would make it a second-generation steam locomotive. Since the trust was not creating a replica of a Peppercorn A1 but the next in its class, Porta's suggestions were duly considered and the trust reported only some of his ideas could be adopted as his others were untried and presented too many risks, which Porta estimated would have taken 20,000 test miles to iron out his improvements. Ironically, in 2003, it was decided to make *Tornado* oil-fired for cost and operational reasons, following earlier dual-fuelled coal-and-oil-fired proposals in 1998, when boiler design commenced. This was later abandoned in favour of the original design of coal firing, due to the large increase in global fossil fuel prices, and to save the certification costs of this design difference.

There were no general arrangement drawings of a Peppercorn A1, so rough engineering dimensions for *Tornado* were obtained from measuring Peppercorn Class A2 60532 *Blue Peter* at the National Railway Museum (NRM). Many of the drawings originally used at Doncaster Works for the Peppercorn A1's had been preserved at the NRM, and a team of volunteers spent three days collating these in 1991. The original drawings were India ink drawings on linen which had to be scanned into a computer aided design (CAD) software program as the microfilm copies at the NRM were not suitable for manufacturing purposes, and direct dyeline copies could not be made. 95% of the original drawings were found, with 1,100 scanned by 1993, and a further 140 in 2001. A few poor quality originals required re-drawing. Updated specifications were required to be drawn up to account for out-of-date material specifications and drawing notes whose original meaning could not be determined. Other design details were also obtained through interviews with Peppercorn's former assistant, J.F. Harrison.

### Changes from the original Peppercorn A1s

*Tornado*'s design was modified where necessary to better suit modern manufacturing techniques and to fit in with the modern high-speed railway, while retaining the greater part of the original design. As an evolution of the Peppercorn Class A1, *Tornado* would also incorporate improvements that would have been made to the class had steam continued, such as correction of the rough riding faults.

The following design changes were made for cost or operational reasons:

* An all-welded boiler (i.e. not riveted)
* Steel firebox (not copper)
* One-piece frames
* Roller bearings
* Improved front bogie
* Improved steam circuit
* Altered tender coal/water balance (more water)
* Overall weight reduction

Additionally, to meet current safety and operation standards, *Tornado* includes:

* Up-rated electrical supplies
* Primary air (not steam) brakes
* LED cluster head/tail lamps
* Vacuum brakes (for heritage railway stock)
* 1 inch (25 mm) reduction in overall height (for overhead line equipment (OLE) regulations)
* Automatic Warning System (AWS)
* Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS)
* Data recorder
* European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) compatible GSM-Railway (GSM-R) cab radio

With advances in manufacturing, *Tornado's* 48-foot-6-inch (14.78 m) long steel plates were electronically cut from one piece of steel, as opposed to the original Peppercorn A1s, which had two-piece frames riveted together. These are probably the most accurate steam locomotive frames ever produced. Despite their higher costs, roller bearings were used owing to the reliability they had demonstrated after a trial on some of the original engines. This caused an unforeseen problem in 2003 since the modifications made to the tender in the original fitting of roller bearings as an experiment to some Peppercorn A1s had not been properly drawn for the Cartazzi axle of the trailing wheels.

A 1-inch (25 mm) reduction in height from the original 13-foot-1-inch (3.99 m) height was required by the Network Rail regulations, and was achieved by a redesign of the dome and safety valve mountings on the boiler, and by reprofiling of the cab roof and chimney. Testing was planned to occur with a lipped chimney, and on receipt of the first full livery, *Tornado* would be fitted with an authentic rimless chimney, described as the original non-capped version. The fluted chimney was still not fitted at the time of its LNER Apple Green livery launch on 13 December 2008, due to it still being machined at the manufacturer. It was completed and fitted in time for the inaugural main line passenger run. The chimney was also fitted with a spark arrestor. *Tornado* has two whistles: a standard LNER "teapot" whistle on the cab front and an ex-LNER chime whistle from LNER Class A4 4482 *Golden Eagle* behind the right-hand deflector.

### Boiler from Meiningen Works

Consideration of the boiler began in late 1998. No standard gauge boiler had been built in Britain for such a large express locomotive since the 1960s, and it was required to be based on the original LNER design but meet modern safety standards. Design changes included the cheaper modern-day fabrication method of a welded, rather than riveted, firebox and boiler tubing; the use of steel, rather than copper, for the firebox; and the aforementioned height reduction for Network Rail regulations. While manufacturing facilities still existed in Britain to manufacture such a large boiler, because of the design differences from the originals the trust required a supplier with specific experience of designing, building, and certification of modern steam engine boilers as required by the EU's Pressure Equipment Directive.

In early 2002, the Deutsche Bahn's Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works in Germany was identified as a suitable supplier. It possessed the required knowledge as main line steam operation had continued in East Germany until the mid-1980s, 70% of its work still involved steam, and it still possessed the powerful plate roller machines. The trust did not have sufficient funding to place the order until January 2005. On 16 July 2006, the boiler arrived by sea and was unloaded at Darlington with a 200-ton crane, having taken just nine months to build. The fitting of the 21-ton firebox and boiler unit to the wheeled locomotive frame was said to have been a perfect fit, requiring no grinding at all, a tribute to the accuracy of the design and construction at Meiningen. The fitting was not without incident though, as the extra weight caused some compaction of the trackbed, and assistance was required to move the locomotive back into the works, by a combination of being winched, towed by a forklift truck and pushed with Land Rovers.

A further modification to the boiler design has been the use of hollow stays which support and separate the outer boiler and inner firebox. The hollow stays act as an indicator of any cracks in the otherwise inaccessible stays, such cracks being revealed by water leaks. Leaks have in fact been detected and have led to the locomotive being unavailable for service. Replacement stays were fitted in 2010.

### Tender and wheelset

In 1991, a preference for a "Doncaster pattern" riveted tender was expressed as per the original Peppercorn A1s. The redundant tender of LNER Class A3 4472 *Flying Scotsman* was acquired, although later returned unused, allowing *Tornado* to remain a completely originally-manufactured locomotive.[*citation needed*] By 2002, it was agreed that a flush sided (all welded) boiler and tender was appropriate for a Darlington-built Peppercorn A1, making construction and maintenance easier. The tender was redesigned internally, removing the water scoop, increasing the water capacity from 5,000 to 6,000 gallons, and reducing coal capacity from 9 to 7.5 tons. In 2003 the need for a second tender for *Tornado* was discounted.

The motion components alone cost £150,000, taking £50,000 to forge (and requiring three years to complete) and £100,000 to machine. The wheelset was the first mainline steam locomotive wheelset to be manufactured in Britain since 1960, and took five years and nine suppliers. The wheels were so smooth that the complete locomotive could easily be pushed out of the works by human power alone, as seen when the locomotive was moved outside in preparation for its first steam-powered moves. If the locomotive were to be suspended, the entire wheel and motion arrangement could be turned by hand.

## Manufacture

*Tornado* was mostly assembled at the A1 Trust's Darlington Locomotive Works, bringing together components manufactured around the country and some from overseas. Actual manufacture and construction started in 1994 before the works opened, with casting of the cylinders and wheels, the cutting of the frames, and construction of the cab. The locomotive frames were assembled at Tyseley Locomotive Works in Birmingham, which was marked by a laying ceremony on 5 January 1995 and completed by October 1996.

In March 1997 *Tornado*, as a completed frame and inside cylinder, was displayed in the Great Hall at the National Railway Museum for several weeks. She returned to Tyseley to await completion of Darlington Works. The elements of *Tornado* were brought together with the opening of the works in 1997, and the opening ceremony saw the unveiled locomotive, now consisting of the frame with its three cylinders and cab attached. Early 1998 saw the smokebox construction started and the tyres fitted and by 1999, forging of the motion components had started with the first delivery of components commencing in January 2000.

By September 1999, the last wheel had been pressed onto the wheelset, which was delivered to Darlington by July 2000. By January 2000, the front bogie had been assembled. With the fitting of these parts, the mounting of the frame onto the wheelset, and fitting of the smokebox, by the end of 2000, the most visible missing parts of *Tornado* were the boiler and tender.

Post-2000, assembly and setting of the motion proceeded, and attention turned to the design of the boiler; a £250,000 appeal was launched. *Tornado* became a rolling chassis by October 2002, and achieved the first synchronous movement of the motion and all wheels in August 2004. 2005 saw construction of the boiler in Germany, with construction begun on 16 October, and completed in time for delivery on 16 July 2006. By June 2007 *Tornado's* internal construction was sufficiently complete to allow fitting of the boiler to the frame, using a 100-ton crane. The most complex casting, the superheater header, was started in 2007, and after defeating two foundries the complex shape was cast by a third supplier. Owing to space constraints at Darlington works, the *Tornado* tender frames and body were built off-site, with the body being significantly built locally in Darlington. The tender wheelsets were assembled by an East Lancs Railway-based company. The tender frame and wheelset were united by December 2007, and the tank attached to it by February 2008.

From its construction until final testing was completed, *Tornado* sported a grey coloured undercoat as a precaution in case the boiler cladding had to be removed. The livery was described as "works grey" in a "satin finish". While in this undercoat, *Tornado* wore the web address of the A1 Trust on the side of the tender and the mark RA9 on the locomotive cab, denoting its route availability.