![]() ![]() The idea and much of the organisation of the race is credited to Graeme Bunker, managing director of railtour operator Steam Dreams and operations director of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the builders of Tornado. Although Tornado is a brand new locomotive completed in 2008, her design was based on the original 1940s designs used for the LNER Peppercorn Class A1 locomotives, with appropriate modern day changes for engineering, safety, operational and manufacturing cost reasons. According to the show, the XK120 and Black Shadow were the fastest car and bike in the world in 1949. The motorcycle was a Vincent Black Shadow, registration 750 UXL (1952), the car was a Jaguar XK120, registration SKE 7 (1954). That year reflects the fact that the original 49 Peppercorn Class A1s were built in 1948–9, and accordingly, the bike and car selected were 1949 models. The race was specifically given a 1949 theme, with the BBC postulating that the race might represent what Top Gear would have been like in 1949. The original trains were exclusively operated by the streamlined LNER A4 class. The Peppercorn A1 class was never used on the original Elizabethan due to the lack of a corridor-type tender for crew changes on the move. Launched in 1949 as the Capitals Limited, from 29 June 1953 it was known as The Elizabethan, after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. 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. The post-war late 1940s was an era of resurgence for the railways, driven by the newly nationalised entity British Railways, which attempted to regain some of the prestige of the pre-war competition between the private railway companies. This culminated in the 1930s competition between the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) and the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) companies for the prestige of having the official fastest London to Scotland timetabled service, before World War II changed the priorities for the rail system. ![]() The term Race to the North had emerged in the 1890s with the various railway companies on the east coast and west coast main lines competing for passengers. The contest was billed as the 21st Century Race to the North, as a multi-modal version of past railway races from London to Scotland. 4472 Flying Scotsman, on, a few months before mainline steam on British Railways ceased on 11 August 1968. 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. ![]() The race was to be the centrepiece of the first episode in the 13th series of Top Gear. 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". Jeremy Clarkson picked next, and to the surprise of everyone, especially James May, would travel on board the footplate of Tornado, leaving the Jaguar to May. Richard Hammond picked first and would ride the Black Shadow motorbike. To decide on who would use which form of transportation for the race the trio would pick out pieces of paper from a hat. Eighteen months in the planning, the race was filmed in secret on 25 April 2009, and shown on 21 June 2009 on the UK's top rated motoring programme, Top Gear.ĭubbed 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). The race saw the car, bike and locomotive, race from London, England, to Edinburgh, Scotland, a journey of around 400 miles (640 km). The Top Gear Race to the North was a three-way race held in 2009 between a Jaguar XK120 car, a Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle, and railway locomotive 60163 Tornado – a brand new mainline steam engine completed in Britain in 2008. Not to be confused with Race to the North. ![]()
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