The Tornado project aimed to complete the task of building the locomotive from scratch, with no recovered/restored parts, a feat never achieved in the preservation movement before, and not completed in Britain for a main line locomotive since 1960. This was considered by the trust to be the next logical step in the steam heritage movement, after the restoration of Standard 8P Pacific No.71000 "Duke of Gloucester", which due to its final state, had involved building a large quantity of new parts.