60163 "Tornado" in Top Gear Race to the North

25th April 2009 - 60163 hauling a private charter through Newark Northgate with Jeremy Clarkson on the footplate!

This train had been chartered by the BBC to feature in a forthcoming episode of Topgear. Jeremy Clarkson was on the footplate of Tornado between London and Edinburgh. Richard Hammond and James May had to beat him using road based transport.

This charter was kept very quiet and the timings were not released to the railway press. I had heard rumours that it was due to run, though no firm confirmation. Early on Saturday morning, I was advised by a fellow member of wnxxforum.com that the train had just passed Peterborough. Needless to say I was at my local station (Newark Northgate) with my camera ready to get a shot.

The secrecy under which this train ran is clearly evident in my video. Under normal circumstances, the platform would be packed full of steam/train enthusiasts!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• 60163
• Tornado
• Jeremy
• Clarkson
• Top
• Gear
• Newark
• Northgate

[eamh2002]

Make way for the king of rails.

I never knew steam engines had the power to spin it's wheels until I saw that top gear episode <3 try that electric suckers :D

[RamzyJB666]

well to be honest i think there are reasons why steam engines aren't aloud to go any higher than 75 mph it may be to do with hammer blow since certain steam engines especially merchant navy surposably suffer from it, can damage or wear down track apparently especially at higher speeds so it might be something to do with that or they don't trust driver visibility at higher speeds for obvious reasons who knows but we do have rather busy railway lines in this country...

[ashtonite88]

did you know her carrages where empty

[tom201090]

@RamzyJB666 also some steam engines are in there 80s or 90s. Bittern (60019 running with two tenderes as 4492 Dominion of New Zealand) is in her mid 80s.

[tom201090]

@SvenTviking she maintained 75 for quite a while on many sections of the route but most mainline locos have black boxes fitted and there is the potential if an engine goes above that speed the people who dont like the steam trains on the main, and have the power to stop them...may stop them

[JETZcorp]

@chevyalltheway06 Yeah, both 844 and 4449 are beasts, almost the pinnacle of US steam technology. I have a rail simulator program which lets me do ridiculous things like put American trains on a British line, and just for kicks I put the Tornado and SP&S 700 (almost identical in size and performance to 4449, which it shares a roundhouse with) next to each other. Holy shit, the Tornado is MINISCULE next to the big American train. It was like parking a Renault Twingo next to a Dodge Ram.

[paullubliner]

@RamzyJB666 No, it's because they're old except for this one.

[LarS1963]

LOL.

I can't believe the amount of people who actually think that it would be good to back to steam.

I love steam-locomotives as much as the next trainspotter :p, but there's a reason they aren't used anymore. They have to stop for water and coal, the spend a lot of time in maintenance, they are fuel-inneficient, and they are slow. Yes, slow.

Fastest steamer is the A4, the record 126 mph. The TGV goes double that! 250 mph! Steam is of the past. It was glorious and amazing, but it is gone!

[SvenTviking]

I think she was going faster than 75!

[cornholio435]

@RamzyJB666 Not really, It did'nt matter when they were averaging 90/100 mph everyday on some runs in the 60s and the track was crap compared to today. Its because the Rail network don't want to be shown up.

[LJJ23ARSRUL]

i saw jeramey

[GayBoyRunning]

@eamh2002 thats still kinda slow. the Frenchs newer TGV does somethink around 500Kms & thats for a Electric train. & theres no steam engine out there that can get up to at least 400kms?? then there the new japanese maglev thats electric & go's even faster then the french TGV.