Tornado

She will be ready, when she's ready , when you think of whats been needed to be done that she will be back and running this year, is something that would have not been possible years ago.

 

Whilst working today I met one of the tornado chaps, passing through, I got the impression that things are moving along nicely.

 

What did the lady on the phone say ??.........."machining is still going on". Now the loco. can't be nailed back together until the new bits are available and ready to fit .

The trust have been brilliant with updates so far.........they'll deliver., they've made a commitment for a return to traffic date, it'll be there.

 

Latest news from the trust says they have arranged 60009 as Standby locomotive, which, considerering they don't start Running in on the NVR until 2nd. July seems sensible.
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The latest update:

https://www.a1steam.com/2018/06/22/repairs-update/

 

It would be interesting to know if it has been put back together as before, or if any changes have been made to reduce the likelihood of the failure occurring again.

 

Did they ever say what the root cause of the failure was? I don't seem to recall hearing (other than 'lubrication').

Noel

 

Is it just me who thought the lubricator and reservoir deserved a new coat of paint before being ready to be returned to the locomotive?

 

Surely they are looking deeply into why the lubrication failed: possibly contamination, possibly imperfect alignment of the valve. They want to make sure it won't happen again, to Tornado or any other steam loco.

 

I would guess that it is difficult to test the lubrication under mainline operating conditions. Easy to do in the yard, except that things are not moving, but less easy at speed.

 

I'm sure that all avenues are being explored, and that the Trust will publish/promulgate their findings once they have completed their investigations.

Until then...

 

Indeed: not least for the benefit of the operators of other steam locos.

 

I can't see there being a fundamental flaw in the system; it has been used over millions of miles by thousands of engines. Nor can I see that there is a problem with the lubricant; there would have been many similar failures by now if there were. By far the mostly likely scenario is an accidental disturbance in the oil feed: line blockage , stuck non-return valve, etc. One of these are far more likely.

 

The "Beano" states that the A1 Trust/First Class Partnerships report will be published at the end of June/beginning of July.

 

What's the chance of our all waiting patiently till then?

 

That is tempting providence I guess.

 

Somewhere between 'slim' and 'none', at a guess - and there's a report that 'slim' has just left...

 

We could discuss what colour font it should be in...

 

That DB Cargo NIR that was released pretty much gave the game away as to the cause. It was posted on here somewhere, lost in all the froth and went more or less unnoticed.