Brentor to be revived at 75F!
PRESERVED Southern Railway 4-6-2 No. 34053 Sir Keith Park is to undergo a temporary change of identity at the request of a former railwayman whose surname was carried by a member of the identical West Country class.
For a weekend in June, and possibly for a subsequent photo charter, the Bulleid light Pacific is to become No. 34095 Brentor, complete with West Country class scroll, the appropriate shedplate, and smokebox numberplate.
Jonnie Pay, commercial manager of the Spa Valley Railway, where the locomotive is based, agreed to the change after an approach from retired train driver Phill Brentor, of Peterborough, who had planned to get married in the railway’s home town of Tunbridge Wells. The wedding plans have been thwarted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but steam railway enthusiast Phill remains undeterred.
Phill said: “My father’s family name was Markovitch, which is of Romanian origin, but he wanted a more English name and decided to change it by deed poll to Brentor after visiting the village in Devon – this was before marrying my mother and before I was born. As far as I can ascertain, we are the only Brentors in the world.
Occasion
“I am getting remarried, and my sister Jane and I each have replica Brentor nameplates made by Newton Replicas, and West Country Class scrolls, and I also have a replica No. 34095 smokebox numberplate and Eastleigh shedplate 71A, the engine’s last shed.
“With Sir Keith Park operational on the Spa Valley Railway, my future wife Betty and I thought we could marry in Tunbridge Wells, and had planned to hire the railway on June 28 for our reception and to travel on a train, hauled by the engine which would be fitted with our nameplates, West Country Class scroll, and smokebox and shedplates. We contacted the railway and Jonnie agreed. However, finding a register office in the vicinity that was available proved extremely difficult, due to them having to clear backlogs caused by the lockdowns, and it became impractical to try to make it happen.
“An added complication was that my son Adric and his wife Jen are flying to the UK from Alaska, where they live, to join us on the day, which will be their tenth wedding anniversary, and they had planned a renewal of vows on the platform.”
Phill, who is 64, joined BR as a shunter at Eastleigh in 1988 and subsequently became a driver of Southern electrics out of Guildford.
He was determined to make the weekend special despite his wedding to Betty being postponed, and Jonnie agreed to still convert Sir Keith Park into No. 34095 Brentor.
So, on June 26 and 27 there will still be a Brentor party at the Spa Valley’s Tunbridge Wells West station, attended by Phill and Betty and their guests – Jane and husband Graham, Adric and Jen, daughter Devon and her fiancé Daniel, and son Tarran and daughter Kess. The following day, Adric and Jen will renew vows on top of the 1082ft high Brent Tor itself on the western edge of Dartmoor.
Dream
“The Spa Valley Railway jumped at my idea and I will be eternally grateful to them,”said Phill.“I have dreamed of this for many years.”
Jonnie added: “While we are disappointed for Phill and Betty about having to postpone their wedding, we will be delighted to recreate long-lost West Country No. 34095 Brentor, and I am sure it will attract plenty of interest among visitors on the two days as well as photographers.”
No. 34095 was one of the class members that worked up to the end of steam on the Southern Region on July 9, 1967, when it was allocated to Eastleigh where, coincidentally, it had been built in October 1949 and had its air-smoothed casing removed in January 1961.
It was cut up at Cashmore’s of Newport in April 1968.