Steam & Excursion > It's almost 2010, and Steam rules the day!

During the recent "fine, dry snowflake" event in the UK, which did a fine job at shutting down the Eurostar and many of England's electric commuter trains for a day or two, the brand new A1 Pacific "Tornado" performed a high speed, on time special with the "Catherdral's Express". Passing, time after time, the gridlocked modern traffic that had been put in the hole. To add insult to injury, in a beautiful way, she even picked up "stranded" passengers in London and gave then a lift home!

In what has been a (mostly, minus 261) great year for steam, this is one of the BEST stories!!

I heard about this on another board and just had to laugh. All of that modern technology and a simple steam locomotive triumphed the snow!

What a wonderful, wonderful story!

Gotta love it!

Here are a couple articles:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8428097.stm

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2009/december/21/steam_wins_the_day.aspx

OKTrainboys Wrote:
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> During the recent "fine, dry snowflake" event in
> the UK, which did a fine job at shutting down the
> Eurostar and many of England's electric commuter
> trains for a day or two, the brand new A1 Pacific
> "Tornado" performed a high speed, on time special
> with the "Catherdral's Express". Passing, time
> after time, the gridlocked modern traffic that had
> been put in the hole. To add insult to injury, in
> a beautiful way, she even picked up "stranded"
> passengers in London and gave then a lift home!
>
> In what has been a (mostly, minus 261) great year
> for steam, this is one of the BEST stories!!

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I think this is "The" steam story
of the year. Very Nice indeed!!! Steam Rules!!
Happy Holidays.
Greg Scholl

Fantastic. Sadly, you'd never see this in the US.

The Peppercorn has done amazing things since its debut. The Top Gear program was just great.

-Mike

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

Ain't that just great! I love it.

Harlock Wrote:
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> Fantastic. Sadly, you'd never see this in the US.


Government vs Privately owned rails. Big difference.

Is the tornado still limited to 75 mph or has that been lifted?

sp219 Wrote:
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> Is the tornado still limited to 75 mph or has that
> been lifted?

I believe all UK mainline steam has been limited to 75 mph for years. Vintage diesel to 90 mph.