Blast from the past: Tornado hits Shropshire

The ‘Tornado’ (No 60163) is a London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) 4-6-2 Peppercorn Class A1 steam locomotive built in 2008 to an original design by Arthur Peppercorn.

It was the first newly-built British mainline steam locomotive since 1960 and the only Peppercorn Class A1 in existence after the original batch were scrapped. To commemorate this fact, it embarked on a tour of the UK in 2018, including the Severn Valley Railway between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth.

I decided to capture the event and, after consulting a map, decided on a spot just outside Bridgnorth at Oldbury, overlooking an arched viaduct. When I arrived, I found a number of others already assembled, most of whom seemed to be train enthusiasts rather than photographers. However, when the train finally made an appearance it was facing ‘the wrong way’ and was pulling the carriages in reverse – hardly an inspiring photograph.

There was much muttering amongst the assembled throng, and it became apparent from those ‘in the know’ that the engine would change ends at Bridgnorth station and would return ‘the right way around’. The problem was that the view would be rather poor at the current vantage point because we would now be looking at it in the opposite direction away from the viaduct.

Fortunately, some of the enthusiasts had the necessary authority to allow them to walk on the track and cross over the viaduct – and they kindly allowed me to join them. So I ended up in, what turned out to be, a better spot, with a signal post in the foreground and the viaduct beneath. It was a good hour wait before the train returned but, as predicted, it was in the correct orientation and emitting copious amounts of steam into the sky as it built up speed for the return journey.