On Saturday, January 31, at 4pm in the Norwegian Restaurant Coach, at the Swindon and Cricklade Railway, history will be in the making.

Something that has only been done by Darlington, with panache and an eye-watering price tag, is going to happen again here in Swindon.

And it will rival what Darlington has done with the 50th A1, called Tornado.

Tornado captured everyone’s imagination in the latter part of 2008 when it was rolled out as the first steam locomotive built in Britain for almost half a century.

Today’s generation had proved we still have the skills to take raw iron, steel, brass and shape it into a locomotive that, for a brief moment, captured the imagination of the people of this island. It turned heads as the rest of the world was for once amazed rather than surprised at the eccentricity of the British.

I think that there were some envious looks from many across the globe as we achieved what some of them only dream of.

Well, Swindon, stand back and be ready to watch as a project more audacious than the Tornado Project is launched.

Here in Swindon a locomotive construction project will start, but before people knock it, think back to a period more than 50 years ago.

Swindon was the crucible of the Great Western Railway. Generations of Swindonians built locos on a weekly basis for almost 150 years, in a works that was designed to repair railway equipment from wheelbarrows to steam giants, as well as making everything from a pin to a naval field artillery gun.

On Saturday the people of Swindon and the world will hear of a project to build a steam locomotive from scratch.

And not something as straightforward as the Tornado, but a real classic that only the sons and daughters of this great town could do. They will build a working “Galloping Alice.”

What is Galloping Alice? It was a unique solution to the Midland and South Western Junction Railway’s need for a powerful freight locomotive but with the cheaper price ticket of a large tank locomotive.

It was designed to express freight through to Southampton Docks. To meet this strict requirement Beyer Peacock of Manchester provided a special locomotive in 1895 based on its export models to the Empire, in particular those provided to New South Wales in Australia.

This was the MSWJR Locomotive no 14 a 2-6-0. It proved so successful that a second was ordered.

It was better known by some as Black Alice, due to the smoke that belched out from its chimney as it climbed the bank at Grafton.

When the GWR absorbed the MSWJR Alice went into Swindon Works for the GWR treatment.

They showed Beyer Peacock a thing or two and Alice, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, left the works in February 1925.

It was then used by the GWR to haul the daily goods to Stoke Gifford Bristol.

It was given the new nickname of “Galloping Gertie” due to its rough ride.

Its most famous moment was in 1930 when it worked the express to Swindon after the King George V failed at Badminton.

Sadly, shortly after this feat and having completed 83,000 miles in GWR ownership, it was cut up at Swindon.

Come along and savour the moment at this historic launch at 4pm.

If you want to you can also become part of recreating living history and help to build Galloping Alice.