Top Gear Race to the North
Eighteen months in the planning, the race was filmed in secret on 25 April 2009, and shown on 21 June 2009 as the first episode of the thirteenth series of Top Gear Dubbed A1 versus A1, the race involved Tornado, based on the design of the 1949 Peppercorn A1 Class British Railways express passenger locomotives running on the East Coast Main Line, pitted against the 1949 models of Jaguar car and Vincent motorbike, both being restricted to using the A1 primary road, rather than the modern day M1 motorway (because the M1 was not opened until 1959).
However, while being introduced to the footplate crew alongside Tornado's representative Graham Bunker, who would be traveling on the footplate of Tornado on the first leg to York and parts of the second leg from Berwick, Clarkson was told to his horror that he would not be driving but would instead be the fireman, in charge of shovelling the coal for the trip – "I'd be shovelling a lot of coal, 8 tons of it".
60163 Tornado, capable of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) but at the time restricted to 75 miles per hour (120 km/h), broke a number of records for preserved steam locomotive operation in Britain, including the first 'non-stop' all-steam-hauled passenger train from London King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley in 41 years, and a first for the steam preservation era, the run having last been achieved by Tornado's fellow LNER Pacific type locomotive, No.
Part of this was the creation of a non-stop passenger express train from London King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley, timetabled at 6 hours 30 minutes.
18 months before the race, The BBC had an idea of doing a remake of the British Transport Film, Elizabethan Express as a drama directed by Gabriel Range who would have written the Script with producer Simon Finch.
[citation needed] Upon hearing this, Clarkson loved the idea so much that he decided that the drama would be axed and the run would be the first episode of the thirteenth season of Top Gear.
4472 Flying Scotsman, although due to her ongoing restoration at the National Railway Museum in York, Tornado was put forward as a suitable replacement.
[1][6] While many rumours had persisted about this special tour, but no passengers became aware of the Top Gear plan on arrival at King's Cross.
[2] Tornado's load consisted of 11 coaches,[10] with the A1 Trust's maroon support coach behind the locomotive followed by a kitchen car and nine dining cars of the Riviera Trains Royal Scot liveried rake in carmine and cream colours,[6] The carriage load weighed in at 358 tons tare, 375 gross.
This was achieved by having a National Express East Coast executive on board, communicating by mobile phone and radio with signal boxes and train control centres.
[6] The A1 road by comparison is 413 miles (665 km) long, albeit from St Paul's Cathedral and not King's Cross, to the centre of Edinburgh,[12] at the eastern end of Princes Street near Waverley station.
At 7 am Platform 1 at London King's Cross was cordoned off, as the camera crew filmed the three presenters drawing lots to determine which mode of transport to take.
[2] Tornado left approximately 90–120 seconds late due to delays in the camera crew boarding the support coach.
[3][6] The 5 minute 57 second time to travel from King's Cross to Finsbury Park was a speed record for preservation and comparable to 1950s non-stop trains.
On leaving Grantham, due to a late-running National Express East Coast Leeds service, and a temporary track speed restriction, by Claypole, Tornado was 7 minutes behind schedule.
As Tornado departed Tweedmouth sidings following her final water stop, May had a small lead, being about 10 miles (16 km) north of Berwick.
In a fit of exhaustion from traveling on the footplate for over 8 hours alongside the continuous firing work and running to the finish line Clarkson collapsed in a heap on the floor requiring James to revive him with a beer.
[6][8] While Clarkson and May awaited Hammond, enjoying a beer in the hotel, they were spotted by a wedding party arriving, after the couple had been married at a nearby church.
[8] Clarkson was covered in an unusually heavy amount of soot due to the fact that, in addition to being exposed as normal during his stint as fireman shovelling coal, the presence of overhead wires and electrical equipment in the locomotive cab prevented use of damping hoses.
[4] While known as a petrolhead, Clarkson is also a big fan of British engineering, and the Tornado project was an award-winning example of this (albeit incorporating a German-designed and built fire-tube boiler).
He also included a detailed chapter on how to drive the locomotive in his book, How To Land An A330 Airbus and Other Vital Skills for the Modern Man.
This programme was his second attempt to re-lay the 10 miles (16 km) of line from Barnstaple to Bideford using OO gauge Hornby Railways track and run the first train between the two towns for more than 25 years.
[7] Details of the shoot were kept secret beforehand by the BBC,[5] due to safety fears over spectators at stations, line-side and water stops[2] or paparazzi photographers attempting to follow the car or bike on the A1.
[1][6] Non-stop London to Edinburgh train runs had previously featured in the Elizabethan Express filmed in the summer of 1953, hauled by the LNER Class A4 No.
The race was to be the main feature of the first episode of the 13th series of Top Gear, broadcast in the 8pm slot on BBC Two on Sunday 21 June 2009.
[4] The event made national media attention after May and a soot blackened Clarkson were photographed outside the Balmoral Hotel, waiting for Hammond to arrive.
In the evening, Tornado would haul another circular tour, this time out of London Victoria around Kent, tackling Martin Mill bank and passing the White Cliffs of Dover.
[2] A further difficulty was due to water troughs having been removed from the rail network, meaning it was not possible to achieve the postwar steam timings of six and a half hours.
[2] On the plus side for the car and bike, they had the speed advantage of not having to travel through towns and villages exactly as the old Great North Road would have, but instead benefitted from the use of modern bypasses, and the faster A1(M) sections of the A1, where it has been upgraded to motorway standards.
[1][3][6][10] Steam Dreams (railtour promoter), Riviera Trains (rolling stock provider), Network Rail (network access), DB Schenker (depots and drivers), National Express East Coast (ticketing, control) all contributed their services to the train at cost price, with all profits remaining going to the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust to pay off the remaining debts from building Tornado.
