Today’s video sees me travelling a fair distance from my base in the Midlands down to the South Coast and Dorset for SR Rebuilt Merchant Navy Class 4-6-2 35028 Clan Line! Fairly new from overhaul, today she was hauling RYTC’s “The End of Southern Steam” tour to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the cessation of steam on the Southern Region of British Railways, in July 1967. The tour would traverse many of the old routes frequented by Merchant Navies in steam days, travelling out from London Victoria via Clapham Junction, Woking and Basingstoke where she took the West of England main line via Salisbury to Yeovil. After that the diesel dragged the tour to Weymouth for a break whilst 35028 was turned and serviced at Yeovil Heritage Centre. 35028 would then run light to Weymouth, attach to the front of the train and haul the tour back to London Victoria via Poole, Bournemouth, Southampton and Winchester to Basingstoke where she rejoined the outward route back to the Capital. Due to the ongoing CDL dispute, WCR paired her with a set of maroon Mk2 coaches for the run. The weather conditions were decidedly not summerly and it rained lightly for the vast majority of the day.
For the tour I set out from my local at 7:24, heading down to Leamington, changing for a silver set to Banbury and then an XC Voyager (I call them Vomiters) to Basingstoke. Once there I united with ‪@danielstrainsukofficial9133‬ for the trip over to Andover which was our first location. Despite heavy rain, we managed to set up on the bridge West of the station to see her pass underneath at some speed, albeit with the safety valves lifting. After that we united with ‪@WestCountrySteamVideos‬ ‪@adtrainvids9569‬ for the trip to Sherborne, Tom having left us at Templecombe. Here, again despite heavy rain, Clan Line is seen absolutely flying through with a massive blast on the whistle! After a few refreshments including a bacon roll from the station cafe, ‪@adtrainvids9569‬ and I proceeded to Yeovil Junction to witness 35028 being serviced and prepped for the return journey. After this I met ‪@themodster‬ and ‪@EHSteamVideos‬ who extremely kindly offered to take me to Upwey with them; I’m extremely grateful! We stopped off briefly at Thornford to watch 35028 pass through light engine, before continuing to Upwey Bank, where we set up at the top of the 1 in 50 incline at Bincombe Tunnel! Nice also to meet ‪@TheSouthernerYTChannel‬ again here. This was to be driver Bill Monteith’s last turn on the footplate so we were expecting a good run with minimal assistance, and that’s exactly what we got, with 35028 lifting the echoes on the climb through the cutting out of Weymouth towards Dorchester. After this ‪@themodster‬, ‪@danielstrainsukofficial9133‬, ‪@EHSteamVideos‬ and I engaged in a long haul car chase along the A31 in an attempt to beat 35028 to Beaulieu Road in the New Forest, a battle which we won! 35028 is seen digging in and picking up speed along the incline out of Brockenhurst towards Southampton. ‪@themodster‬ dropped me kindly at Ashurst New Forest, which allowed me to get a train to Southampton Central. Although I wasn’t expecting this, 35028 was held for my service and the one after it meaning I walked away with an additional bonus shot of 35028 powering through Platform 1 at Southampton Central! After that my XC Vomiter back to Birmingham came almost immediately and I headed back home.
Thank you to everyone for their help making today possible, including the mighty Clan Line and her crew, my company today (in particular thanks to Thomas for upgrading this video significantly travelling in the car), and thanks to SWR, XC and NR for today. It’s one of those that turned out better than expected! I hope you enjoy as I did.