Tornado Over Yarm – Steam and Stone

There’s something special about seeing steam cross the skyline again — and few places capture it quite like Yarm Viaduct. Built in 1852 for the Leeds Northern Railway, this incredible structure carries the East Coast Main Line high above the River Tees on 43 brick arches, standing over 65 feet tall. It’s a feat of Victorian engineering that still dominates the town, its graceful curve blending strength and beauty in equal measure. Trains still pass daily, but when a steam locomotive appears, it’s as if time folds back on itself.

I caught Tornado, the magnificent Peppercorn A1 Pacific, making its way across the viaduct in the morning light. The contrast of steam against brick and sky was breathtaking — the past gliding through the present, the familiar hum of the modern railway giving way to something timeless. From above, you realise how rare these moments have become: a living piece of history rolling through one of the North’s finest feats of architecture. Steam, steel, and stone — all still doing exactly what they were built to do.