Tornado admits to reaching 100 mph
Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:21 pm
Many of the UK subscribers to this forum will be aware of "Tornado", but others perhaps will not. Sir Nigel Gresley, who was responsible for the design of "Mallard", holder of the steam speed record, died rather young, and one of his successors during WW2 was Mr Peppercorn, who designed and built several locomotive classes for wartime conditions of poor track, long trains and sketchy maintenanace. They were rather successful, but the timetabling and location of the scrapping programme with the advent of diesel locomotives in the 1960s meant that all of the A1 class of Pacific type locomotives were scrapped rather rapidly.
About 15 years ago, a group decided to recreate one of Peppercorn's A1 Pacifics, but using updated methods and materials where necessary, and with various refinements to the design using advanced CAD methods. Tornado is the result, and she has been hauling enthusiasts trains all over Britain since coming into service, with no major breakdowns or problems.
She has been running a scheduled service this year, sharing the roster and timings with modern diesel trains, but limited to 75 mph, which was adequate on the Settle-Carlisle line.
The photograph below shows her in Skipton station, with modern trains running the same service in the background.
The locomotive had been designed and built with a full set of modern electronic safety equipment, and the mechanical margins of all the components had also been very thoroughly checked at the design stage, so the design team were very confident she could operate continuously at 90 mph, and perhaps 100 mph, with an ultimate safe top speed somewhere in the region of 120 mph (with a tail wind). She normally operates with a single private coach immediately behind the locomotive, which houses generators to operate modern train electric air conditioning etc. Steam locomotives were capable of badly overstressing track via out-of-balance forces, but Tornado had her balancing done by computer, and on test demonstrated track forces within the normal range for modern diesel or electric locomotives.
On Wednesday last, she hauled a normal heavy train between Newcastle and Doncaster, to show that the ruling modern schedule speed of 90 mph was within her capacity. There will be a lot of data analysis and checking to do, but she reached 100 mph for a few miles on the flat, and sustained 90 mph nicely.
This wasn't any sort of hero attempt to break any records, just to demostrate that Tornado could comfortably and safely haul 90 mph trains on the same track as sheduled electric passenger services, with something like a 10% margin of speed in hand occasionally. There is no offical recognition that she can haul such trains regularly yet, and indeed there will be months of negotiation at best, but the initial test results look good.
About 15 years ago, a group decided to recreate one of Peppercorn's A1 Pacifics, but using updated methods and materials where necessary, and with various refinements to the design using advanced CAD methods. Tornado is the result, and she has been hauling enthusiasts trains all over Britain since coming into service, with no major breakdowns or problems.
She has been running a scheduled service this year, sharing the roster and timings with modern diesel trains, but limited to 75 mph, which was adequate on the Settle-Carlisle line.
The photograph below shows her in Skipton station, with modern trains running the same service in the background.
The locomotive had been designed and built with a full set of modern electronic safety equipment, and the mechanical margins of all the components had also been very thoroughly checked at the design stage, so the design team were very confident she could operate continuously at 90 mph, and perhaps 100 mph, with an ultimate safe top speed somewhere in the region of 120 mph (with a tail wind). She normally operates with a single private coach immediately behind the locomotive, which houses generators to operate modern train electric air conditioning etc. Steam locomotives were capable of badly overstressing track via out-of-balance forces, but Tornado had her balancing done by computer, and on test demonstrated track forces within the normal range for modern diesel or electric locomotives.
On Wednesday last, she hauled a normal heavy train between Newcastle and Doncaster, to show that the ruling modern schedule speed of 90 mph was within her capacity. There will be a lot of data analysis and checking to do, but she reached 100 mph for a few miles on the flat, and sustained 90 mph nicely.
This wasn't any sort of hero attempt to break any records, just to demostrate that Tornado could comfortably and safely haul 90 mph trains on the same track as sheduled electric passenger services, with something like a 10% margin of speed in hand occasionally. There is no offical recognition that she can haul such trains regularly yet, and indeed there will be months of negotiation at best, but the initial test results look good.