It was 50 years ago today...
...that scheduled steam-hauled services ended on the Southern Region of British Rail - July 9th 1967.
Yesterday, the Railway Touring Company ran "The End of Southern Steam" special from London Waterloo to Weymouth and return. With outbound routing via Yeovil Jct, where there is a turntable, the return service was steam-hauled out of Weymouth "the right way around". It is the first time this has happened for a couple of years.
This is not the most spectacular of steam locomotive photos. However, it was a delight to see 34046, Braunton (in my opinion stupidly running under Lord Dowding titles) making easy work of the bank climbing through Upwey Station. I suspect the diesel at the back was providing quite a bit of the power! However, a working steam locomotive still makes a wonderful sound approaching out of sight from Weymouth and then again disappearing out of sight before entering the ridgeway tunnel and coasting back down to Dorchester on the north side of the escarpment.
It was 50 years ago today...
...that scheduled steam-hauled services ended on the Southern Region of British Rail - July 9th 1967.
Yesterday, the Railway Touring Company ran "The End of Southern Steam" special from London Waterloo to Weymouth and return. With outbound routing via Yeovil Jct, where there is a turntable, the return service was steam-hauled out of Weymouth "the right way around". It is the first time this has happened for a couple of years.
This is not the most spectacular of steam locomotive photos. However, it was a delight to see 34046, Braunton (in my opinion stupidly running under Lord Dowding titles) making easy work of the bank climbing through Upwey Station. I suspect the diesel at the back was providing quite a bit of the power! However, a working steam locomotive still makes a wonderful sound approaching out of sight from Weymouth and then again disappearing out of sight before entering the ridgeway tunnel and coasting back down to Dorchester on the north side of the escarpment.