Construction of "Tornado" began in 1994 and was at Darlington Works for most of the project, whilst numerous components such as the boiler were manufactured elsewhere. The project was financed through fundraising initiatives such as public donations and sponsorship deals and further funding came from hiring out "Tornado" itself for special rail services. Construction was completed in 2008 and full certification of the locomotive was achieved in January 2009. Having been designed in compliance with modern safety and certification standards, "Tornado" has been conducting passenger services on the UK rail network and on mainline-connected heritage railways since 2008.