A Greyhound and a Tornado

The railway played host to a couple of rare visitors recently, in the form of an old BR 4-4-0 Class T9, Nº 30310 in BR Black Livery and the much more recent Peppercorn Class A1 Pacific 'Tornado' Nº. 60163 in BR Express Blue Livery.

In the photos, above, we see the T9 at Carswater on a local passenger service.

These handsome locomotives were introduced by the LSWR in 1899 and were designed for express passenger work by Dugald Drummond. There were 66 in total and they were given the nickname 'Greyhounds' due to their speed (up to 85 mph) and their reliability.

Happily one example of this fine class of locos has been preserved, namely 30120, and she is currently undergoing an overhaul to bring her up to main line condition.

This model is by Hornby, has the Catalogue Nº: R2713 and probably dates from around 2009.

In these photos we see a much newer locomotive in the shape of the Peppercorn Class A1 'Tornado' in charge of an express at Gunnmere Junction and she is looking rather splendid in her BR Express Blue livery..

This model is also by Hornby, has the Catalogue Nº R3206 and she dates from 2011.

The real loco was only completed in 2008 and is the 50th member of the class to be built.

Sadly all 49 of the original Peppercorn A1s were scrapped.