SHOW’S OVER! ‘UNION’ BOWS OUT OF MAIN LINE
…but two years at East Lancashire Railway awaits John Cameron’s pet Gresley ‘Pacific’.
THE LOCOMOTIVE AND I ARE BOTH GETTING ELDERLY, AND THEREFORE IT MIGHT BE FITTING THAT WE BOTH WIND DOWN TOGETHER!
JOHN CAMERON
Efforts to arrange a last main line run for Union of South Africa to its final BR home of Aberdeen have been abandoned following the coronavirus lockdown.
Owner John Cameron had been working on a plan for a farewell trip for the Gresley ‘Streak’ from Edinburgh in April, the idea being for the train to be promoted by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society and operated by DB Cargo.
“I’m grateful that some people at least tried to help at the last minute,” Mr Cameron told Steam Railway on March 24, “but when something like this comes along, you just have to accept it.”
It means that No. 60009’s final charter was actually the Railway Touring Company’s ‘Yorkshireman’ from Ealing Broadway to York via the Midland Main Line on March 7. The 1937-built 4-6-2’s main line certification expires on April 22.
“We had a lot of fun on that last trip,” said Mr Cameron. “What brought it home to me was the number of people at the lineside and stations – and everywhere else.”
That showed, he continued, “just how popular ‘Number Nine’ is.”
Large crowds were at York itself to witness the BR green ‘A4’ hook off its final steam special at a place it had run through many times on trains such as the non-stop ‘Elizabethan’ and, at the start of its career, the LNER’s ‘Coronation’. Union of South Africa then shared the National Railway Museum’s stabling point with Riddles ‘7MT’ No. 70000 Britannia, which had arrived on the Saphos Trains ‘White Rose’ from Crewe.
This is not yet the end of ‘Number Nine’s’ active life, however, as John Cameron has revealed that he expects the former Haymarket engine to move to the East Lancashire Railway, where it could run throughout 2021 to see out its final boiler ticket.
The ultimate hope is to display the Doncaster ‘Pacific’ together with already-retired ‘K4’ 2-6-0 No. 61994 The Great Marquess at Mr Cameron’s Balbuthie Farm in Fife (SR443 et al), a scheme that has been delayed by the refusal of planning permission. That would be the final chapter for an engine owned by the former Scottish Region chairman ever since he bought it from BR following withdrawal in 1966.
“Obviously I’m disappointed that, with the present situation, we didn’t have the chance to have a last main line run in Scotland – but the health of the nation must come first,” said Mr Cameron.
“And we are sending the locomotive to the East Lancashire Railway, so there will be the opportunity to enjoy it in due course.
“We must remember the locomotive and I are both getting elderly, and therefore it might be fitting that we both wind down together!”
ELR general manager Tracey Parkinson confirmed the proposal for No. 60009 to move to the Bury line, telling Steam Railway “We desperately want it to come to the ‘Lancs’”.
Details of a move still need to be confirmed, though it was hoped the ‘A4’ could run from York ‘engine and van’ by the time this magazine is published.