On Saturday 20^th September Tornado was operating a Cathedrals Express tour from London to Holyhead and return as far as Crewe. The outward journey was made in wonderful weather with an early arrival at Holyhead. Tornado was serviced and turned ready for the return journey being ready almost an hour before the train was due to leave.
 
After departing on time, and collecting further passengers at Bangor Tornado ran well as far as Abergele. It was noticed here that the brake pressure was not being maintained and the air pump had stopped running. Attempts were made to restart the pump but were unsuccessful so the train was stopped at Rhyl to enable an examination. Various attempts to resolve the problem were not successful and the train had to be rescued by a diesel locomotive and ran around three hours late. Passengers went forward from Crewe via road transport as the railway was closed for engineering work further south. Although Tornado normally runs with two air pumps, on this occasion the second pump was defective and awaiting a programmed repair at Crewe.
 
We are very sorry for the disruption caused to passengers and Steam Dreams and are also grateful to the many rail industry colleagues from various companies who supported the operation. Tornado is now at Crewe Heritage Centre where full repairs will be carried out in the coming weeks. This will return Tornado to full health with both air pumps working normally.