Zealot

announce1 Some of you good folk may already know of the UK-based society of volunteers who, over the last 10 years or so, have raised around one million sterling to build from scratch a Peppercorn A1 Pacific steam loco. These standard gauge locos were originally built in 1948/9 for British Railways, but all were scrapped in the 1960s switch to diesels.
The A1 Steam Trust have had to build every piece of the loco and tender from scratch, and their efforts will be crowned later this year when 'Tornado' (as it is to be called) will steam for the first time. It will have added modern safety features to allow it to run on the main line pulling special excursions. It will no doubt also run on several of the dozens of preserved railways (some over 20 miles long) than can be found in all parts of England, Scotland and Wales (it will be excluded from Ireland who have a wider gauge of 5'3").
Anyone interested should see http://www.a1steam.com/mainmenu.html
:wave: :)