🚀 go-pugleaf

rosenstiel@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:

> In article <mnvgq7-011.ln1@clive.hug>, paul@the-hug.org (Paul Oldham) 
> wrote:
> 
> 
>>This Thursday (11/11) the "The Armistice Day Special" will be 
>>passing Cambridge hauled by the 2008 built LNER Peppercorn A1 
>>Pacific No. 60163 "Tornado" - which is the train all us steam 
>>enthusiasts have long been waiting for.
>>
>>It will pass Cambridge heading north at about 13:37 and will pass 
>>again heading south at about 19:35, although it will of course be 
>>dark by then. The detailed timetable can be found online at
>>
>>    http://www.uksteam.info/tours/t10/t1111a.htm
> 
> 
> It's also due to pause at Whittlesford for a couple of minutes at 13.22.
> 


Strange that you say that. Having just read Paul Bird's quip about the 
weather, I should say that there was indeed a tornado that paused in 
Whittlesford one autumn day two years ago. I was in the playground on 
the Lawn with Tom - and a few other children and parents - when a 
tornado appeared out of the blue just behind the tennis courts. It 
whipped up a cloud of fallen leaves and created a tight and consistent 
whirl about 12ft in diameter, perhaps 25ft high. It drifted nonchalantly 
across the Lawn and paused right in the middle of the playground, right 
in front of me, for several seconds. I could have stepped forward and 
stood in the centre of it whilst it paused there for several seconds. 
Sadly, I didn't. We stood in amazement and watched, then it started 
moving again after five seconds or so, heading towards the road. By the 
time it got to the road it had disappeared into nothing.

Michael