A CELEBRITY appearance capped off a successful steam gala in Alresford last week.

But rather than a famous person, a famous locomotive visited the Watercress Line autumn event as Tornado rolled into town.

The Peppercorn Class engine, built five years ago, was the first to be built in the UK for 50 years and helped attract 4,000 people to the three-day event.

A spokesman for the Watercress Line said: “It was a fantastic event. Tornado has been an amazing success story and is always a big draw and we have enthusiasts who will come from quite a distance to see us.

“The gala is organised by the preservation side of the organisation and we had all sorts of things going on thanks to volunteers. We had tours at Medstead station and a new viewing gallery at Ropley in the locomotive shed where people enjoyed seeing restoration work up close and walk around as it was going on.”

There were eight locomotives at the gala and four trains with carriages, of which three were for passengers and one was a demonstration freighter.