Welcome to another blog entry in the world of “The Railway Dog”. In an effort to get up to date, we’re looking at our local highlights from June 2024 when the big event was the Swanage Railway’s “Strictly Bulleid II” event which saw the gathering of eight of Oliver Bulleid’s Pacific locomotive designs working in one place. In fact, the most seen working together since the end of steam on the Southern Region of British Railways (BR) in 1967. A sequel to April 2017’s “Strictly Bulleid” gala held to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the final operation of steam hauled services on the Southern, this was a wonderful celebration of these loco’s and we thoroughly enjoyed our time watching and traveling behind them.
Oliver Bulleid designed his Pacific locomotives against the back drop of World War II. They are stylish in both their original and rebuilt forms and operated express trains throughout Southern England ranging from Kent to Cornwall. They have always been a favourites of mine, so I was excited to witness the spectacle of eight examples all in steam at some point over the four day event (7th to the 9th of June, plus a preview day on 6th June).
All of the visiting locomotives arrived for the gala by road, the one exception being Merchant Navy No. 35018 ‘British India Line’ which came in by rail, bringing with her the maroon MKI coaching stock hired in for the event from West Coast Railways.
The other guest Bulleid Pacific locos attending Strictly Bulleid II; No. 34053 ‘Sir Keith Park’, No. 34070 ‘Manston’, No. 34072 ‘257 Squadron’, No. 34081 ’92 Squadron’, 34092 ‘City of Wells’ and No. 35006 ‘Peninsular & Oriental S.N. Co’ made their way on low loader lorries and transferred to Swanage Railway metals at Norden. Swanage based No. 34028 ‘Eddystone’ made up the eight locomotives featured across the event weekend.
Most of the ‘Strictly Bulleid II’ trains operated along the whole length of the nine-mile Swanage Railway between Swanage, Harman’s Cross, Corfe Castle, Norden and beyond to Furzebrook and the River Frome – just before the heritage line’s connection with the national railway network and within sight of Wareham.
The Swanage Railway says the “Strictly Bullied II” spectacular attracted more than 4,700 passengers in what was their largest special event and one which really captured the imagination of railway enthusiasts. Will we ever see the like again?
The featured eight Bulleid Pacific steam locomotives were:
1. Merchant Navy class No. 35006 ‘Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation’ courtesy of the 35006 Locomotive Company and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.
2. Merchant Navy class No. 35018 ‘British India Line’ courtesy of West Coast Railways.
3. Battle of Britain class No. 34081 ‘92 Squadron’ courtesy of the Battle of Britain Locomotive Society and the Nene Valley Railway.
4. Battle of Britain class No. 34053 ‘Sir Keith Park’ courtesy of Southern Locomotives Limited.
5. Battle of Britain class No. 34072 ‘257 Squadron’ courtesy of the Spa Valley Railway and Southern Locomotives Limited.
6. Battle of Britain class No. 34070 ‘Manston’ courtesy of Southern Locomotives Limited.
7. West Country class No. 34028 ‘Eddystone’ courtesy of Southern Locomotives Limited.
8. West Country class No. 34092 ‘City of Wells’ courtesy of the East Lancashire Railway.
Other notable railway comings and goings into Dorset territory during June 2024 were:
Monday 3rd June –
CrossCountry Voyager spotting in Bournemouth:
Class 73 Test Train:
Wednesday 5th June –
Test Train Eastleigh East Yard to Weymouth
Thursday 6th June –
Class 458 EMU drag from Bournemouth Depot on the first stage of its journey to Widnes Transport Tech for conversion to a four-car set:
Monday 10th June –
33012’s return and 35018 leaves Swanage
Tuesday 11th June –
A rare Weedkiller MPV working to Swanage and another Class 69 allocated to an SWR Unit drag making its way to Bournemouth depot
Saturday 15th June –
“Dorset Coast Statesman” Charter
Wednesday 26th June –
“The Swanage Belle” railtour
Thursday 28th June –
For the record, the North Dorset New Measurement Train (NMT) was in the hands of Network Rail former High Speed Train Class 43 Power Cars No.’s 43013 and 43062 working 1Q23 0552 Reading to Salisbury via Exeter.
From The Archive:
We haven’t included anything from the archives here for a while, so let me rectify that oversight with this entry in connection with the “Strictly Bulleid II” theme.
My memory is a bit rusty (excuse the pun), however, back in 1983, I went on what I am sure was a school visit to Dai Woodham’s scrapyard in Barry. As an active member of the school railway society, it was suggested to sympathetic teachers that a minibus trip to the famous “locomotive graveyard” in South Wales could be a feature of what was termed “Project Week” when normal lessons were suspended with trips and activities planned in their place.
The photographs from the Barry trip below are dated 7th May 1983. This would have been a Saturday, so it a possibility my memory is playing tricks and this was not an educational trip, but a visit organised by another group. It was not unheard of for school activities to take place outside of teaching hours, so this – until proven otherwise – is how I choose to remember finding myself darting between rusting hulks on a grey overcast day in South Wales.
The story of Woodham’s is legend among rail enthusiasts. More than 80% of steam locomotives running on heritage railways in the UK today can be traced back there, as the yard became a centre of pilgrimage for steam enthusiasts from the fledgling steam railway preservation movement.
The business was first established in 1892 as Woodham & Sons by Albert Woodham, the company being based at Thomson Street, Barry and bought old rope, wood and scrap metal from the ships, boats and marine businesses which used the newly created Barry Docks, which it then resold or scrapped. When Albert retired in 1947, his son Dai took over the business and renamed it Woodham Brothers.
Following the British Railways (BR) Modernisation Plan of the late 1950’s, the majority of steam locomotives built for Britain’s railways were withdrawn from service to be reduced to scrap by the end of the 1960’s. However, such was the sheer number of loco’s which needed processing, the railway works belonging to BR were unable to cope and they contracted work out to private scrapyards like Woodham’s. Because Dai Woodham also had a massive wagon-breaking contract from British Rail, with thousands of wagons coming through the yard – and it was a lot easier to break up wagons up than steam engines – most of the locomotives which arrived at Woodham’s were shunted into sidings for cutting up when other sources ran low.
Indeed, the facts of Woodham’s history are startling. Of the 297 withdrawn British steam locomotives that were sent to the yard, 213 were subsequently rescued by preservationists.
Nothing is left of the scrapyard today – an Asda supermarket and a housing estate have long since replaced it. You can read more about The Barry Scrapyard Story here.
Thank you for joining us. We appreciate your comments and corrections. We’ll be back again soon and hope you’ll join us. Be seeing you!
2 comments
Your nocturnal video footage hanging out of a carriage pulled by 34070 had us in palpitations.
And your school railway society drawings had us clapping our paws in delight.
Your nocturnal video footage hanging out of a carriage pulled by 34070 had us in palpitations.
And your school railway society drawings had us clapping our paws in delight.
Lol – Thank you very much 🙂