Tornado

David did do precisely that. Before he died he spent a lot of time leaving them a "brain dump" so that all of his knowledge and work would not be lost. The tragedy is that the Trust don't seem to be taking things forward, at least not at any kind of pace.

A few years back, Daniela Filova was working closely with David Elliott. I got the impression that she was a talented engineer and I thought she might emerge some years down the line as David's successor. She now runs Daniela Works, where I believe the pony truck went for remedial work. A talented engineer is certainly what the Trust needs now.

 

I remember meeting Daniela on one of the roadshows in Peterborough. I formed the very same impression about her; she seems to be doing a fair bit for the G5 project.

 

If the work on the P2 has dried up, then business dictates that other work has to take its place. A reluctance to lift the importance of any P2 work would surely follow.
All of those contractors, helpers, volunteers, ALL seem to have been tossed aside, and nobody exists to pick the parts up, and start again.
That is tragic, my last visit to DLW on a Saturday in 2025, had 1 volunteer on side doing meet and greet.
The place should have been a hive of activity, the fact it was not, is a hard one to turn around, especially it would seem with the current leadership???

 

The following just landed in my inbox from the Great Northern Railway Society, publicising a local meeting:

Could be interesting if someone decides to get awkward.

 

https://www.gnrsociety.com/event/gnrs-spring-meeting-peterborough-museum-26-apr-2025-10-30-4-30/

If you don't want to wait that long, she'll also be appearing at Stevenage Loco Society on Thursday 27th March.

 

On a very personal basis, that's not a good day for me.

 

Latest Trackside magazine reports Riley’s are being contacted to look after Tornado could not be in better hands.

 

I can see these forthcoming visits by a trustee to a couple of railway societies soon getting interesting, given the chance.

 

What role are Riley & Sons partaking with Tornado please..has a contract been signed ?

 

Trackside mag quoted Davies as saying they were talking to Riley’s regarding contracting Tornado’s engineering requirements.

What I wasn’t aware of at the time of reading was that apparently Riley’s have a 3 year contract with WCRC to maintain their locos.

So you could imagine that there would be a requirement from WCRC for the Trust to use Riley’s too, if WCRC are to operate the loco. It also gets the Trust out of the hole they appear be in with regard to repair and maintenance, now they have the prospect of generating income from tours.

 

I think we all have great confidence in Riley's competence, but they can't do everything at once. And how come WCRC need anyone else to maintain their locos? They have done excellent restorations of more than one themselves.

 

If I was offered the Tornado maintenance contract I would decline. I always tried to avoid picking up work from previous contracts in my engineering career.. difficult but the onus immediately fell on you, particularly if previous bodging had taken place to "keep things running"....

 

The whole thing smells...three parties...if anything goes wrong, it seems to me, only one party will get the stick.....threesomes rarely work...

 

Thats why I said in a previous post that I hope Riley's don't end up in a similar situation as it found itself in when it took on Flying Scotsman, OK at the end, the loco will be reliable, but at what cost, there are it would seem some parallels between Flying Scotsman, and Tornado, Wasn't Davies in charge of the overhaul of flying Scotsman at the NRM, at the time, it all went very badly wrong?

 

So they've passed the A1 to WCR, the P2 is moribund. What are they doing?
I agree the display isn't important, but there are quite a few things I would think are important that they aren't doing...

As I said above, the state of the website, but the deafening absence of anything else is more concerning

 

That's a surprise - I thought the army had to be involved at every opportunity. See Darlington tracklaying, Wensleydale tracklaying, the never ending collaborations and photo opportunities at Darlington, etc.

 

Well if Ukraine kicks off that avenue will be brought to an abrupt end...

 

What situation did Riley end up in ? Not a failure that you seem to suggest. Riley and Sons have more commercial awareness and vision than the NRM and A1 trust put together.....