This Is One Of The Many Things I Love About Britain,

I have mentioned this before,

yesterday afternoon, the Tornado - the first steam locomotive to be built in Britain for close to 50 years - undertook its maiden journey, thousands packed the platform at the National Railway Museum in York to wave the train on its way as it departed in a triumphant plume of steam at 12.07pm, hauling 13 carriages behind it,

the 18-year project had proved a labour of love for a group of railway enthusiasts who decided to build a new engine from scratch in 1990, they donated £1.25 a week - then the price of a pint of beer - for nearly two decades, it was a peppercorn fund - appropriate enough for Peppercorn Class A1 Pacific 60163 Tornado, based on the locomotives built by Arthur H. Peppercorn for the London and North Eastern Railway in the late Forties and later scrapped by British Rail in the Sixties, steam trains, I just love them!