A STEAM locomotive with TV show presenter Jeremy Clarkson at the footplate narrowly lost out on a unique race televised at the weekend.

Tornado, the first steam engine to be built in England for 50 years, was pitted against a Jaguar XK120 and a Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle on BBC2’s Top Gear. The first episode of the new series rewound back to a time when steam locomotives were still used on the country’s railways.

Clarkson came a close second to James May in the Jaguar with Richard Hammond, who had mechanical problems on the bike, third.

The race pitted the three vehicles from London to Edinburgh, with parts of the sequence filmed across the North-East including locations at York, Durham and Newcastle – but not in Darlington where Tornado was built.

Mark Allatt, the chairman of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust said Tornado, which pulled ten coaches, lost by just two minutes but would have won by “a matter of hours” had the Jaguar taken the path of the 1949 Great North Road, which ran through the centre of Darlington.

He added: “It was great to be asked to do it. They did a superb job of filming it all and it is the best quality footage of a steam train I have seen. They really went to town on it.”

The team in the locomotive with Clarkson were supplied by transportation group DB Schenker, with the trust operations director Graeme Bunker also joining them.

The trust hopes the film, which could be seen by up to 350 million people worldwide, will further enhance its reputation.

A repeat of Top Gear is on BBC2 on Friday, at 9pm, and is available on iPlayer until August 9.