Newcastle 13th February 2020 · Prince of Wales – Brand New Steam for the 21st Century

Presenter: David Elliott

David Elliott, the A1SLT’s Director of Engineering, presented “Prince of Wales – Brand New Steam for the 21st Century” at Newcastle on 13th February to the season’s largest audience, some of whom had travelled up to 120 miles to attend. David initially explained the rationale for the construction of an updated and improved version of the country’s most powerful steam passenger design and how it will be better suited commercially to operation on the main line than its stablemate, Tornado, despite having a lower maximum speed. Marketing of the new “product” will emphasise the loco’s design as experience has shown that members of the non-enthusiast public cannot always differentiate between Flying Scotsman and Tornado. PowerPoint was used to great effect to describe and explain CAD component design, as well the operation of 2007’s rotary cam valve gear, and how other design features have been updated to eliminate weaknesses found in the original six members of the class. Numerous, successful features will be shared with Tornado including ERTMS and the electrical circuits, which are expected to exceed the 2.5 miles of wire found in the A1. A truly outstanding evening, which concluded with a hint of things to come; what indeed will be the name of the successor to Bantam Cock and “Bantam Hen?”