Tornado

Every year the BSBI organises a New year Plant Hunt - this year it runs between 29th December and 1st January. Today I joined the Northamptonshire Flora Group for a meander round Longthorpe, with a rather civilised break for hot chocolate at the Fox and Hounds pub. It was a rather leisurely stroll, but we found a very satisfactory 53 species in flower.

Our return to the car-park coincided with the arrival of the Tornado. I hadn't heard of it before but apparently in 1990 a group of people came together to  construct a brand new Peppercorn A1 Pacific steam train.  They formed The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust and after nineteen years of incredible effort that locomotive, No. 60163 Tornado, moved under its own power for the first time in 2008. It is now used for hauling specials on the mainline and gives joy to thousands of passengers and linesiders.