A Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway themed feel about this weeks blog. It’s like we plan these things instead of throwing everything together at the last minute. Which of course we’d never do.

Our week in review kicked off last Wednesday, March 2nd 2022, when I noted that the daily booked turn for Class 455 units to journey from Wimbledon to Bournemouth depot actually ran. I normally check Realtime Trains every day for out of the norm movements, but typically on the one day I neglected to look the service was activated. However, I was able to see the return working slightly later on the same day as can be seen in the following video:

Sunday March 6th continued the Slow and Dirty theme when Yoshi and I took a trip to the Mid Hants Railway to see a special train hauled by S&D 7F 2-8-0 steam locomotive No. 53808 in remembrance of the 56th anniversary of the last train on the Somerset and Dorset route. Organised by The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust and primarily for use of Members and Friends of the Trust, this is intended to be an annual event. Having dropped Yoshi’s mum off for a pampering spa day en-route, we arrived in Alresford in time to see the departure of the second and final train of the day.

The trains ran between Alresford and Alton and on the second return journey it stopped at Ropley where passengers could detrain and observe a run-through of the station at line speed. No. 53808 built in 1925 by Robert Stephenson & Co is owned by The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust and was purchased for preservation in 1969 returning to service following restoration at the West Somerset Railway in 1987. A second overhaul was completed in February 2016, with the engine emerging in British Railways black livery with the late BR crest. As of autumn 2020 the locomotive is permanently based at the Mid Hants Railway for the remainder of her boiler ticket.

I was pleased to note that the Watercress Line shop and West Country Buffet at Alresford was open on the day along with the S&DRT museum which contains station signs and memorabilia from the former S&D route to Bath Green Park. I can recommend the cheese and onion pasties from the buffet.

Yoshi visited Bath last November where he enjoyed a couple of sips of water at the Green Park Brasserie located on the former station terminus and goods yard site which also now contains a Sainsbury’s supermarket and associated car park. Sainsbury’s donated substantially towards the £1.5m cost of the restoration of the Grade 2 station building. The train shed lost its glazing during World War 2 and the glass was not replaced until the early 1980’s refurbishment and the roof now protects shoppers from the elements and provides an area for community activities.

Our day was rounded off with stops at Eastleigh, the Southampton Maritime Freightliner depot and Totton Yard.

Before our visit to Hampshire, a trip to London on Saturday to view an exhibition of Francis Bacon (1909 – 1992) paintings at the Royal Academy meant Yoshi had a sleep over with his cousins Freya and Rosa. There were no paintings of trains at the gallery, indeed I’m not even aware of Bacon’s opinion of railways. I can however imagine a tortured portrait of Gordon the big blue engine from the Rev. W. Awdry’s Railway Series of books screaming into the abyss frustrated at being overlooked as he was an experimental engine and precursor of Gresley’s A3 Pacific’s for the Great Northern Railway and kept a secret. Also he’d be purple.

There were however, two paintings featuring dogs.

Our first archive segment this week comes from 1996 and another visit to The Watercress Line and their S&D Dream Weekend which commemorated the 30th anniversary of the last train to run over the Somerset and Dorset Railway, albeit a month early!

On September 2nd 2006 Kingfisher Railtours ran The Somerset & Dorset Remembered tour using Bulleid West Country Pacific No. 34067 ‘Tangmere’ with EWS Class 67 No. 67006 providing assistance at the rear of the train. If the video is anything to go by, I must have arrived at Wareham to film events just as ‘Tangmere’ arrived with the coaching stock ready for the booked 0620 departure. The route of the tour took passengers from Dorset to Salisbury, Bath and Bristol Temple Meads. Later that same day, after the last passengers were dropped off in Wareham on the return leg, the 67 hauled the empty coaching stock to Weymouth where the locomotive ran round before departing.

Finally more Mid Hants action with a flashback to their 2021 Spring Steam Gala filmed on 1st May 2021:

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading. See you next time!