Crowd salutes rebirth of railway steam power
Published Date: 31 January 2009
About 1,000 people have gathered in York to wave off the first new steam locomotive to be built in Britain for almost 50 years as it embarked on its maiden main line passenger journey.
The £3m Peppercorn class A1 60163 Tornado left the station shortly after its scheduled time of 12.07pm with 500 railway enthusiasts on board.
Seats on the journey were reserved for those who helped raise the millions of pounds needed to build the engine.
Huge crowds packed platforms nine and 10 of York railway station to watch the locomotive as it left with its first passenger train on its return journey to Newcastle.
Silence fell among the onlookers as the apple green engine blew huge plumes of thick, grey steam and sounded its whistle as it prepared to leave.
The engine is the result of an 18-year project to build the steam locomotive and return it to main line rail service.
The train - The Peppercorn Pioneer - is a repeat of the one pulled by the last passenger steam engine, 60145 Saint Mungo, on 31 December 1965, shortly before it was scrapped.
Tornado was built by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust at its site in Darlington and was based on the original designs of Arthur Peppercorn, the last chief mechanical engineer of the London and North Eastern Railway.
It was unveiled by Mr Peppercorn`s widow, Dorothy Mather, at an official ceremony in Darlington in August last year.
The engine was later painted in the distinctive apple green colour worn by the first 30 Peppercorn class A1s to be built, before going on display at the National Railway Museum, in York.
http://www.naffertontoday.co.uk/lat...s/Crowd-salutes-rebirth-of-railway.4934179.jp
