Click the thumbnail to view the full sized images, which measure 600 pixels on the longest side, and are around 50k in size. Please read my copyright notes if you want to use them in any way

I remember the Peppercorn A1 pacifics. They were pretty common around York in the early 1960s. One particular memory takes me back to a schoolboy visit to York shed, and an invite (or perhaps we asked) into the cab of an A1. The crew were dropping the fire, ready to put the loco away for the day. Having finished that job, they suggested we'd better get down now, and, with a totally empty firebox, drove off into the shed. My (non-railway) friends were flabbergasted - how could that be possible?

The story of the intervening years is now well known. The last A1 was taken out of service in 1966, and all were scrapped (why couldn't Dai Woodham have been a Geordie?). Then, in 1990, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust launched its project to build the 50th member of the class...

We were due for a trip to Edinburgh over the weekend of 6/7/8 March - and there it was, in the Railway Magazine - 60163 "Tornado" would be hauling the first A1-hauled departure from Edinburgh since the mid-60s (it would work up the previous weekend). Better go and see it...

But two A1s? Think about it - where does the Great North Road go? Its last (or should that be first?) quarter-mile or so actually runs over the last quarter mile (or so) of the east coast rail route - with a fine view of Waverley station from the footpath beside the road, high above the tunnel mouths (shame about the wires).

Little more needs to be said - the photos tell the story - but what a great moment it was, seeing an A1 in action again after more than 40 years - truly wonderful!

Links:

• The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust

Like these pages? Tell me! - I might put some more up.

Back to index page