Steam To The Rescue!

it appears a bit of snow has fallen in the UK, so naturally trains are at a stand still, but all is not lost, it is now that steam is King, with out missing a beat this Peppercorn class A1 Pacific, was able to withstand the snow and ice that brought much of the South East to a standstill on Monday night, steaming into London Victoria when electric trains were delayed it picked up 100 stranded passengers, the locomotive's 'Cathedrals Express' service was offering festive trips in the region when staff on board heard about the stranded passengers, the travellers were offered free seats and were dropped off at stations as it chuffed through Kent', said Mark Allatt, chairman of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the charity which built Tornado, 'It's amusing because this engine is predominantly made up of 1940s' technology and we were able to keep running despite modern trains not being able to,' he said, 'If any of the rail operators would like to use this technology for themselves, we would be more than happy to build them an engine,' the A1 60163 Tornado is the 50th Peppercorn class A1 locomotive, all of which were designed to cope with the heaviest passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line, the A1s were among the last steam engines to be withdrawn from service from British Rail in the late 1960s in favour of the more reliable diesel, (except when it snows!), there is a picture taken in the 60's of one here, I just love steam engines.