WADEBRIDGE GOES FOR ‘SHOPPING’ AT EASTLEIGH

A Bulleid ‘Pacific’ is to return to Eastleigh 50 years after the end of Southern steam - on display in the town’s shopping centre. Out-of-ticket ‘West Country’ No. 34007 Wadebridge will be the centrepiece of a festival on July 15/16, marking five decades since the last steam workings through Eastleigh on July 9 1967. The air-smoothed ‘Light Pacific’ is due to be transported by road from the Mid-Hants Railway to Eastleigh on July 14, where it will be unloaded onto a specially laid section of track. The event will feature miniature steam locomotives, screenings of railway films, and exhibitions featuring steam-era photographs and the history of Eastleigh Works. Vintage buses will also attend, along with a display of Gordon Keeble sports cars, of which just 91 were built in Eastleigh in 1964-65. It comes a week after the MHR’s own commemorative steam galas on July 1/2 and 7-9, during which Wadebridge will be on display in the guise of No. 34019 Bideford, withdrawn in March 1967.