Tornado/Flying Scotsman.

[Poshbury]

For any steam loco enthusiasts out there, BBC 4 have a couple of programs starting at 8 pm this evening.
Tornado's recent 100 mph main line test run is the first episode, followed by the Flying Scotsman.  :good: 

[Flying Phil]

Well I enjoyed seeing both of them.

[Wacky Racer]

I watched the Tornado one, very interesting.

What I didn't understand was what all the fuss about the Tornado touching 100mph. The Flying Scotsman was doing this in the 1930's and reputedly The City of Truro touched 102mph in 1902.

Progress?

[Simpo Two]

Wacky Racer said:

What I didn't understand was what all the fuss about the Tornado touching 100mph. The Flying Scotsman was doing this in the 1930's and reputedly The City of Truro touched 102mph in 1902.

Progress?

It's an interesting 'retro-achievement'.

Maybe one day, say in 2105 if and when ecogreenblah has passed, they will invent a supersonic airliner. And someone will say 'I'm sure they did that before', and someone else will say 'Impossible, it must have been faked'.

We've had Dark Ages before.

[MG Mark]

The fuss is by proving itself at that speed and sustained running at 90mph during that run is that it can be certified to run at 90 mph rather than the present 75 mph limit for steam on the mainline. This means that it can slot into mainline schedules without slowing normal traffic and having to be frequently sidelined.

More here - https://www.a1steam.com/2017/04/12/new-steam-locom...

Incidentally, Tornado and the Flying Scotsman will be together with Rocket at the Barrow Hill Roundhouse re-opening at the end of September.

[droopsnoot]

Yes, I think the difference here is that it's been built from the ground up by enthusiasts (albeit enthusiasts working with engineers and experienced folk) rather than as part of the national railway that was churning these things out at a rate of knots. I guess (although some will draw negative connotations from the comparison) it's like building yourself a kit car and having to get an SVA done on it, and it passing - you feel a sense of achievement even though any car manufacturer does the same thing you've done, in a fraction of the time, and it's no big deal. Or I guess it's like if you did that, but 60+ years after the last car manufacturer was mass-producing cars.

It was an interesting programme, though (like the documentary "Chuffed to bits" covering the build of Tornado) way too short. I didn't watch the Scotsman one because it's not long since it was on.

[Europa1]

Wacky Racer said:

I watched the Tornado one, very interesting.

What I didn't understand was what all the fuss about the Tornado touching 100mph. The Flying Scotsman was doing this in the 1930's and reputedly The City of Truro touched 102mph in 1902.

Progress?

Watched but didn't pay attention?

The fuss seemed to be twofold:
- the ability to still run on mainlines given capacity issues; and
- the achievement of a group of (admittedly skilled) amateurs in building such a machine.