60163 Tornado at Paddington

While we were living in London last year, a relative mentioned to me that a modern steam locomotive had been built in the UK and was running on the main lines sometimes. I looked it up, and found out about the amazing LNER Peppercorn Class A1 60163 Tornado, including the fact that it was scheduled to run a bank holiday service from London Paddington to Penzance while we were there. Given the opportunity to see a steam train leaving a main line London terminus, I dragged myself out of bed on a holiday Monday morning, and got down to Paddington to see it off.

Tornado At Rest
Waiting in the morning sun under the overpass.
British Railways
Tornado has had several historical colour schemes; this is a classic apple green (and that font is so lovely!).
60163
The engine was completed at Darlington in 2008.
Passenger Coach
The 1st class cars on this service looked fancy indeed.
Welcome to Paddington
Classic train, classic station, modern sign.
Steaming Off
Watching it pull out of the station in a cloud of smoke was incredible.

I also used my phone to take some video, which I posted to Instagram at the time, and am embedding here too. Watching these with the sound is highly recommended.

I didn’t ride on this service and was limited to what I could see at London, but there are many videos from other people on YouTube, including this one of it racing through Twyford station:

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