TORNADO is to return to its native County Durham next spring for an extended two-week stay.

The steam locomotive, which has attracted huge crowds wherever it has run since its completion last year, will be at Locomotion: the National Railway Museum at Shildon, over the May Bank holiday.

Tornado – which took 19 years to build a few miles down the branchline from Shildon at the Hopetown Carriageworks in Darlington – is expected to arrive on Friday, April 23, and will depart on Friday, May 7.

“We are absolutely delighted that Locomotion is returning to the North- East, and we are looking forward to giving local people the chance to get up close to it at Locomotion,” said Dr George Muirhead, manager of Locomotion.

Thousands of people are expected to witness Tornado, the first main line steam locomotive to be built in Britain in 50 years, working at Locomotion alongside the Furness Railway No 20, which was built in 1863 and is the oldest working standard gauge steam locomotive in Britain.

Details have yet to be finalised, but Tornado will be on display throughout its stay and it is hoped that it will be running along the museum track, giving rides, on at least two days. One should be during the Bank Holiday weekend.

Other events will be arranged nearer the time.

“This is really great,” said Dr Muirhead.

“We’ve been talking to Tornado’s owners for about a year to bring it back.

“I get people at the museum all the time asking me when Tornado is coming, and now we have a definite date.”

Tornado has had a remarkable first full year of operations, regularly selling out its excursions and drawing great crowds of watchers.

It has featured on the Top Gear television programme and a Children in Need auction in November raised £15,000 from an enthusiast for a ride on Tornado’s footplate on the East Coast Mainline.