Not Tornado

Ah, the romance of a steam train. The smell of the sulphur, the clank of the couplings and the sound of the whistles all combine to make a person quite emotional. The power of the engine, the sight of the steam and the smoke billowing out as the engine works hard and the crew work even harder to keep the fire burning and the pressure up, to squeeze out every last drop of power. Yes, there's nothing like a beautiful steam engine at top speed.

And this is nothing like a beautiful steam engine at top speed. It would have been; it would have been Tornado doing a 90mph run up the East Coast main line from London to York. Except that it broke down about ten miles south of where I was standing. The signalman took pity on us; he must have seen on his CCTV that there were several people waiting at this level crossing to see it in the middle of the countryside as he called the emergency phone at the crossing to tell us. So instead, this is one of my 'setting up' shots of an electric train going past at speed; at least it's a train.

I didn't hang around but I understand Tornado eventually went past about two hours late, being towed by a diesel. I do hope all those people going to York hadn't made firm reservations there for lunch.