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I am a bit of a Steam locomotive fan and I have been following the progress of this fantastic new locomotive with great interest for some time.

For anyone unfamilliar with it, The A1 Pacific Tornado no 60163 is a 4-6-2 Pacific mainline express locomotive, and is unique in that it is the first full-size, standard-gauge steam locomotive to have been built in this country for some time, The last one being Evening Star, which rolled out of the Swindon works in 1960.

For the past couple of years a group of dedicated enthusiasts and professional engineers from Darlington, have been busy creating, from scratch, the only example of an extinct breed of locomotives - the LNER A1 Peppercorns - which were all scrapped after British Rail’s switch from steam to diesel during the Sixties - the last surviving original - 60145 Saint Mungo - being scrapped in 1966.

This summer, No 60163 Tornado took its first tentative runs along the Great Central Railway between Loughborough and Leicester and now it has been unleashed on the mainline and was recently taken up to the National Railway Museum in York to begin speed and safety trials, and ran faultlessly from York to Scarborough, on a light test run at speeds of up to 50mph.

In the weeks to come Tornado will be pushed to her limits along the demanding and often steeply graded tracks of the North-East and in a weeks time, on November 18, Tornado will have her final test , when she will run to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and back at speeds up to 75mph.

After finishing trials, Tornado, will then be painted in LNER apple green, and will begin active service on chartered runs along the British network in January at speeds of up to 90mph, among these will be the York - Newcastle route, and in 2010, It is planned for her to go through the Channel Tunnel into France and Germany.

For more information on Tornado’s progress, see www.A1steam.com.

Being a big Dr Who fan I was very excited to learn about an event called “Sci-Fi & Steam” which is being held at The Severn Valley Railway station at Kidderminster on Saturday 1st November. It is being billed as a fun filled day out in the company of the friends of Doctor Who.

There will also be stars from Doctor Who mingling with the visitors to the Severn Valley Railway station. Actors lined up will be Marc Davis (The Futurekind Chieftan in the episode Utopia), Matthew Chambers (Hal Corwin in the episode 42) and Francois Pandolfo (Quintus in the episode Fires of Pompeii) who will all be on hand to sign autographs.

There will also be a fancy dress competiton giving fans the chance to dress up as their favourite Sci Fi monsters or robots from the show. The GWR Pannier Tank no 7714 is also expected to be in steam…oooh sounds like great fun, I must remember to take my camera

This weekend - Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th October 2008 it is the annual Kidderminster Beer Festival in association with CAMRA (CAMpaign for Real Ale) and I am hoping to go. It is being held in The Valley Suite at Kidderminster Town Station.

This should be a great opportunity to sample a beer or two There are expected to be a range of up to 20 different beers available, most will be locally-produced brews. such as, Kinver Edge, Hobsons and Wyre Piddle.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this years Severn Valley Railway Classic Car Day. There was a mouthwatering dispaly of classic cars on display including a Ford Corsair & Consul, A Humber Hawk, A Rover 12, Two Austin 7’s, A Vauxhall Victor, a Riley RME - which was one of my favourites, an Austin Cambridge & Morris Oxford, a Mini Cooper S, A Jaguar E-Type Series 3 V12, aswell as a Rover 100 & a few Wolseley’s.

There was also a Classic Bike Display at Hampton Loade featuring all sorts of classic bikes from the heyday of British Manufacturing in the 1960’s, such as Nortons, BSAs, Matchless, Ariel, AJS and Triumph

The weather stayed nice & it was very busy. Also GWR 3440 City of Truro was running this weekend so it was a great opportunity to see this fantastic locomotive in steam again

This Sunday up to 150 classic cars will be on show at the Severn Valley Railway’s annual classic Car Show. All having one thing in common - they were built between the 1920s and 1970s , varying from classic Mini Coopers to an Elegent Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.

Highley Station will have up to 50 vehicles, at the station itself and also at The Engine House Visitor Centre. A further 30 vehicles will be also be lined up at the SVRs stations at Bridgnorth & Highley and there will also be an impressive line-up of classic Motorcycles at Hampton Loade station too.

GWR 3440 City of Truro is also rostered to be running on that day, so that will be another great opportunity for me to ride behind this fantastic locomotive - Classic cars & a classic locomotive - Now there’s a winning combination I’m definitely going.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the formation of the Hawksworth Coach Fund, the forerunner of the Great Western (SVR) Association - which was originally set up to preserve steam locomotives & Coaching stock, a special train ran on Saturday 27th September 2008 From Bridgnorth to Kidderminster.

The motive power was provided by GWR Small Prairie 4566 and the Dukedog 9017 visiting from the Bluebell Railway, It was brilliant to see them double-heading They both departed from Kidderminster at 12·10pm and arrived back at Kidderminster at 17·30pm, via Bridgnorth, There was an extended stopover at Highley giving people the opportunity to look round all the steam engines currently being stored at the Engine House, a light lunch was also served. Among the The coaching stock used were the Association’s three Toplight carriages plus Siphon G 1257.

The Severn Project performed their latest work at the Severn Valley Railway station in Bewdley last Saturday. Entitled “Sabrina & The Engineer” it was billed as a performance of colour, light, music & song inspired by the River Severn & The Industrial Revolution.

The performance started at Bewdley Station at 6.30pm. There was also a procession afterwards aswell. There will be a second performance at Bridgnorth on Saturday 4th October at 6.30pm to which I am hoping to go.

Catch Me Who Can was the third lcomotive created by Richard Trevithick. It is similar to Pen-Y-Daren & was built in 1808 by John Urpeth Rastrick & John Hazledine at their foundry in Bridgnorth on the bank of the River Severn, and was demonstrated to the public on a circular track in Bloomsbury, London, near where the present day Euston Square tube-station is located.

The locomotive reached a top speed of 12 miles an hour before its weight finally
broke the relatively brittle cast-iron rails, causing a derailment. Despite this being a relatively minor incident Trevithick gave up & closed his exhibition after only two months, turning his attention instead to stationary steam engines.

A Replica of Catch-Me-Who-can has recently been completed down at the Severn Valley Railway and I was lucky enough to see it pottering along the rails during a trip to the 14th CAMRA Severn Valley Beer Festival (I’m amazed that the photos came out so well considering the amount of Beer I had consumed by that stage,

The locomotive was also on display, happily puffing way during the Autumn Steam Gala too.

Among all the other attractions down at the Severn Valley Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala this weekend, one of the highlights for me was undoubtedly seeing GWR City class 4-4-0 no 3440 “City of Truro” in steam. This locomotive holds a special place in locomotive history because it was reputedly the first locomotive to have travelled in excess of 100 MPH, a feat which was achieved whilst hauling the “Ocean Mails” Special from Plymouth to Paddington on 9th May 1904.

It was designed by George Jackson Churchward and built at the GWR Swindon Works in 1903 and it retired in 1931, but was saved for preservation. It was resurrected in 1957 when it was overhauled at Swindon for special trips. It also hauled scheduled trains – most notably over the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line and between Reading and Paddington – before being retired again in 1962, this time to Swindon’s new GWR Museum.

It then passed into the hands of the National Railway Collection in York and was restored again in 1984 in order to take part in the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Great Western Railway it made its last main line run in 1992 before going on display in York’s Great Hall. It was overhauled once more in the early 21st century and in 2004 ‘Truro’ returned to steam once again.

This weekend I was lucky enough to see No 9017 Earl of Berkeley at the Severn Valley Railway Autumn Steam Gala. The Earl of Berkeley is a GWR 3200 Class 4-4-0 locomotive which was designed for passenger train work and is nicknamed the “Dukedog” because it is composed of a “Duke” Class boiler mounted on a “Bulldog” Class chassis.

They were originally designed by Charles Collett and built at the GWR Swindon Works in 1936 and were in regular use on the Cambrian Line during the 1950s because they were one of the few locomotives light enough to use Barmouth Bridge. Sadly out of a total production of 30 only one has survived into preservation, this being No 9017 Earl of Berkeley, which is currently running on The Bluebell Line after it’s latest overhaul in 2003.

Interestingly no 9017 did not carry the name Earl of Berkeley until preservation. and is not to be confused with Sir Berkeley which is a completely different locomotive entirely.