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Regular followers of Tornado will be aware that we took the difficult decision to withdraw her early from mainline operations in November last year following the discovery of wheel flats on the locomotive driving and tender wheels. Since then, we have operated some service trains at the Great Central Railway (GCR) in recognition of them hosting us at very short notice until we were able to start the planned overhaul. Immediately after the GCR East Coast mini-gala 15^th & 16^th January, the locomotive and tender were split and the tender was taken to Locomotive Maintenance Services Ltd (LMS) by Allelys. Within three days the tender tank had been removed, the brake gear and air receivers stripped and the wheelsets prepared for removal. The following week saw the tender wheelsets transported to South Devon Railway Engineering (SDRE), who have made a start removing the old tyres and preparing to fit new. The tender frames were stripped further, removing pipework and corroded conduit and have been sent for shot-blasting prior to reassembly. All photos by Richard Pearson

The tender is delivered to LMS

The tender tank is removed from frames

The stripped tender frames, ready to be moved

The tender frames being shot blasted

Back at the GCR, work started on the locomotive. First the boiler was washed out and the brick arch removed from the firebox. The locomotive running gear and frames were steam cleaned as much as possible before Allelys returned to move it to LMS works on 25^th January. Once inside, work has continued to prepare the boiler to be lifted from the frames, removing pipework and associated fittings to permit the removal of the cab and to separate the smokebox from the boiler barrel.

Following the separation of the tender from its frames, Tornado was delivered to LMS as well

Thumbs up!  Nik Proctor breaking out concrete in the smokebox

Removing the smokebox furniture

The team with the newly removed superheater elements

Covid-19 has had a major impact on the workforce at Dampflokwerk Meiningen, and as a consequence we were alerted in January to a six month delay in delivery of the first of our two new boilers.  We have therefore decided that the current boiler fitted to Tornado will be returned to Germany for a programme of work including selected stay replacement, replacement of some rigid stays with the flexible variety, a complete re-tube and the fitting of new foundation ring corners. Steve Davies, Chairman A1SLT, elaborates on the plan in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XocPHZa5Z6U

Some components have already been transported to Darlington for overhaul by our volunteers and construction of a temporary workshop shelter between two 20’ shipping containers at LMS has also been completed. The locomotive motion and brake gear is being removed next and following the boiler lift, the frames will be lifted from the wheels, which will then go to SDRE for the driving wheels to be retyred and the bogie and Cartazzi wheelsets to be reprofiled.

Tornado's new tyres are loaded for transport to SDRE at DLW

A fantastic start to the overhaul, and we think you will agree an excellent achievement by the team in less than three weeks! You can help too – join The Overhaul Club today!