How often do you hear the phrase: ‘It’s all been done before’? British railway preservation - now 66 years on from the Talyllyn’s reopening train - has achieved countless remarkable feats and firsts.
But there’s a significant taboo that has almost never been broken: ‘Plandampf’ - or timetabled steam, to the uninitiated.
‘Plandampf’ is the terrific German concept that leaves modern traction in the sidings and hands the responsibility of normal service trains to steam motive power.
Such events have been a fixture in the continental calendar for a quarter of a century, but hardly ever on this side of the Channel.
Until now.
As you’ll read on pages 6, 36 and 40, No. 60163 Tornado will stand in for one of the usual, run-of-the-mill Class 158s that treads the…
