Tornado

I always thought Raven's designs looked bulky and clumsy. None of the elegance of line that Gresley achieved.

 

The Goodwin Sands?

 

Possibly. But Raven was 63 years old at the time of Grouping, so would probably not have been a long-term appointment on the LNER. The much younger Gresley (aged 46 at Grouping) would likely have taken over within a few years. Most of the other LNER constituent company CMEs were around retirement age, except for Thomas Heywood from the GNSR who continued with the LNER until 1942.

Raven was nevertheless a major figure in locomotive history. He was the first engineer anywhere (not just in Britain) to build 3-cylinder simple expansion locomotives of several types in substantial numbers, starting in 1911 with the Z-class Atlantic (Francis Webb had of course pioneered the 3-cylinder compound). Raven also built what was for many years the only electric express locomotive in Britain.

 

I liked Raven's work with electric locomotives and spent ages finding Hoole's books on them: but the steam locomotives? No.

 

Please can we get back to Tornado?

 

The Steve Davies interview on Green Signals is worth a listen regarding the delays, scope and price.

 

I find it strange just how much bad luck one organisation can suffer during the two years plus that this six month overhaul has taken ….. pretty much every single component of the overhaul has suffered from delay, including significant rework. The more cynical amongst us might consider there to be a common factor at play here, and it’s not luck.

 

Great to see 60163 back in one peace again.

 

Maybe the same common factor as with Flying Scotsman’s drawn out overhaul…

 

I don’t believe the Engineer Extraordinaire TCK, had anything to do with 60163.

 

But the overall person in charge of the two organisations is the same…

 

He also annoyed a lot of people at Wensleydale last night by tweeting pictures of a freshly repainted 37250, that the owners were trying to keep quiet until they could announce it themselves.

 

He was probably just ‘unlucky’ again?

 

We had hoped to do a more formal/professional unveiling this weekend; but as some self centred individual let the cat out of the bag this evening on Twitter. We’ve had no choice to but to go with this latest photo. A real shameful mark to the excellent work put in by the team.

 

Sounds all too familiar….

 

Just read the latest Tornado Telegraph. Rather worryingly there’s no mention whatsoever of any forthcoming public trains, neither mainline nor heritage. Isn’t there one coming up at the end of June, plus the Aberdonians?

 

Yes the 29th June was meant to be its first railtour back...given how this "six month" overhaul is actually two years and six months I'm not convinced itll even make it given the amount of testing and paperwork it seems to require as well as how much of the overhaul has been delayed by

 

Has it moved under its own power on the GCR yet?

 

There’s more work requiring completion first I believe.