Tornado

Put in on a plinth, sometimes you have to stop digging the hole. There are plenty of other engines for main line use. This one is never going to be reliable.

 

I missed the bit about simultaneous Merchant Navy departures from Waterloo and the the Swanage to Bournemouth / Salisbury steam shuttles in there, Martin ...

Tom

 

Bold words. So many I haven't seen a steam loco on the ECML in ages. There's only one A4 now where there used to be three just for starters.

 

Cut the rear end of,put a GWR boiler on,(they were OK?) and see it as a training for making worlds best 4-8-0 out of the P2 project
Can hardly wait and will spend a tenner

 

It feels like kicking a man when he's down but I will certainly be ceasing my covenant soon as I ease towards subsisting on solely my former employer's pension.

 

It's very true of a lot of hobby interests though: I'm viewed as a 'youngster' as I approach sixty in one group I'm involved with and another one has a demographic that suited it back in the late 1970s when it was formed - but nostalgia ain't what it used to be. Look at so-called "classic" cars. Some are newer than the cars I drive!

 

Just like that eh.....

Some of you want to get a reality check, and see how stupid your comments sound.

Although the current regime does not seem ideal, and i wish burned bridges could be rebuilt, this apocalyptic reasoning is plain sad...............

 

Nevertheless, and without saying anything about the problems with the A1, it's a difficult time for independents. Which TOC do you sign to? Whose coaching stock do you utilise? How much control can you retain? The whole game has changed completely since Tornado was last in revenue service.

 

I don’t believe that the boiler is the weak point but I’m not convinced that the trust is being run for anything other than the interests of a couple of its senior people. Corners have clearly been cut and decisions made to rush the locomotive back into service which have backfired spectacularly. And at what enormous cost?

the A1SLT must now go back to basics with a properly thought through recovery plan that will rebuild trust in its covenantors, passengers, clients and other stakeholders. The first step is for the current board to take responsibility for the mess that have got the trust into and resign with a new governance structure put in place.

 

Except there aren’t plenty of locos for main line use.

 

That accusation rings very true for some organisations discussed on here, but it is not clear to me how the way the A1 Trust has been run recently is in anyone's interests. What could the present trustees be getting from it that would motivate them to mismanage Tornado's overhaul (insofar as they may have mismanaged it) or to be so economical with the truth in their communications with covenanters and other donors?

 

Definitely disagree with plinthing but trust now needs to be rebuilt from the ground up after the current regime has spent the last few years what took 30 years to build. The current lightweight and complicit board is incapable of doing this and in the interests of the organisation’s future needs to resign.

 

Here, here.. Finally some words of reason on this thread.

When it does return to the mainline, hopefully one or two will pipe down a bit.

Whilst I would be the first to admit this latest overhaul has been appalling managed, I still can't wait to see see the loco return to being the mainline trailblazer it once was.

I think a few forget just how many miles it has covered in its last ticket too, it proved to be exceedingly useful and will be even more heavily in demand on its return given it's air braked capability.

 

I think the best thing the A1 Trust can do is get the loco in steam and running on the GCR as soon as possible, once people see it in steam some might calm down a little. Deep down, I think we all want a working A1 don't we?

(Ref: a GWR 4-6-0 currently performing brilliantly in Gloucestershire).

 

Some very valid points there about any loco that is not currently part of the regime of either, LSL, VT or WCRC.
If as some on here argue for (as do many of the diesel guys it seems), railtours only work with Mk1's then the enthusiast element of the market is doomed, if not this year then pretty soon I suspect.
So that leaves what the market has been slowly turning into of diners and experience days out, where maybe working a/c, heat and an on time arrival is far more important than being able to hear the loco.
Does a stand alone loco like Tornado even have a economically realistic place going forward unless consumed into one of the three TOC's mentioned above?
I do not know if the engineering side of the overhaul has been badly managed or not, but just about every loco overhaul you look overruns on initial estimates. I do not find that at all surprising, most projects I managed overrun (perhaps I should have been "removed" then), although in my case I guess it was done by lack of performance pay.

Really the only thing as pure outside observer the trust has done wrong is over promise on when the loco would be ready and sell tours on that basis. Neither of those are hardly unique in life, let alone this sector. Days Out anyone?

 

The decision to completely change strategy at the last minute and ‘quickly’ overhaul the existing boiler rather than fit the new one. However, all very very silent on that which is already 2 years late… and does the second new boiler even exist? And then of course there is the exodus of trustees and other volunteers in recent times due to its leadership’s autocratic style and other reasons of which we are not being told.

 

Yes but this hasn’t happened once or twice or even three times. I’ve lost count of the lame excuses and number of times covenantors, passengers and other third parties have been let down. Maybe they believe their own bullsh*t but no-one else is falling for it. The NVR, SRPS, Network Rail and others left high and dry incurring irrecoverable losses. Even the overhaul project manager ‘resigned’ as a trustee. It’s starting to appear like Flying Scotsman’s infamous overhaul… there are common factors here!

 

so what exactly are these corners that have been cut if they are so clear to you?