AFTER hot weather and dry conditions forced the use of a diesel loco on June 18, the ‘Torbay Express’ suffered more misfortune on July 2 when the booked steam loco – No. 60163 Tornado – failed before departure from Bristol.
Injector problems discovered the previous day prevented the ‘A1’ from hauling the train, and it proved impossible to arrange a replacement at short notice.
A DB Cargo Class 66 substituted for Tornado, but the ill-fated train was then heavily delayed on its return journey by operational issues and a signal failure north of Exeter.
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The train was held for 30 minutes awaiting a path back onto the main line from the Paignton & Dartmouth Railway and was then delayed again at Newton Abbot for 93 minutes
The train eventually arrived back at Bristol at around 23.00, too late for many of the 403 passengers to make onward connections by rail.
Read more in the August issue of The RM – on sale now!
