I’ve had a little time to work on the Peppercorn A1 “Tornado” today, after some of the spare pieces I ordered arrived.

I’ve managed to straighten out the bent front beam by submerging the front of the locomotive in boiling water and pulling it forward. I’ve also replaced the shattered buffers with new ones and added on a detailing pack so it looks a bit more like the real locomotive. I now need to 3D print a replacement front ladder, give it a quick lick of paint and it should be OK to go again!

I took the body off the Tornado to get a closer look at the damaged front beams and uncovered a little surprise.

This tiny board is a Digital Command Control chip, which is a key part of the digital control systems for model railways. Essentially, it allows you to control trains with a computer, rather than a dial on a box.

I’m not in the market to upgrade my fleet to digital control so I’m taking it out, but it was an interesting find, especially since the previous owner had said nothing about it (and may not have known).

I know I ought to be concentrating on repairing locomotives in the order I acquired them, but since the Duke of Gloucester runs so well without its repairs I feel bad touching it when others in my collection are suffering more. Take the Peppercorn A1 “Tornado” for example. I acquired this locomotive and it arrived in poor cosmetic state due to being partially crushed in the post, as well as being a slightly inconsistent runner when going backward. Here’s a quick look at the locomotive’s current state.

It’s a pretty striking locomotive, side on — if you ignore the fact the tender is in two parts. That said, this should be an easy fix. What isn’t so obvious in this photo, however, is the damage this locomotive has had to each end.

Neither coupling exists any more — both appear to have shattered in transit. This means that it can’t pull or push rakes of carriages at all. The front buffer beam has been pushed into the main body, causing one side to buckle slightly and both the buffers have snapped internally. Neither smoke deflector stays attached while running although this can easily be fixed with some glue. In fact, due to the amount of repairs it requires, I’ve actually created a repairs and accessories group for my parts list which is already pushing the estimated price up somewhat.

There’s a lot going for this locomotive — it runs pretty smoothly when it does run — but the task of restoring it to its righteous glory is daunting and, asides from one other locomotive I’ve yet to mention on the site, feels like it will be one of the hardest challenges for me going forwards.