The first DRES lecture of 2026 was presented by Graeme Bunker-James of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust. Graeme described the challenges faced by the team of introducing European Train Control System (ETCS) onto steam, heritage and charter trains.

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Picture courtesy of Alan Wilson from Stilton, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

This is the story of the convergence of the old and new; the dramatic combination of analog and digital in the form of fitting ETCS to Tornado. The A1 Trust has worked with several companies (including AtkinsRéalis) to achieve a ‘World-First’ application of electronic signalling to a steam locomotive.

Graeme opened the lecture with some background on Tornado and why ETCS is being fitted. He outlined some of the challenges in the fitting and commissioning of the ETCS equipment and described the ‘lessons learned’ and experience gained.