Bulleid Pacific overhaul boosted by £2000 sale of donated painting
FUNDS for the forthcoming overhaul of preserved SR Battle of Britain No. 34053 Sir Keith Park have been boosted by the sale of a painting of the Bulleid Pacific by steam enthusiast Nigel Wade.
In a project supported by Heritage Railway, Nigel donated the striking painting to the Spa Valley Railway for it to sell in aid of the locomotive’s overhaul and other projects. Within days it was snapped up at £2000 by Peter Mace, a retired doctor who is the railway‘s medical adviser.
Nigel, who is 62 and lives in Farnborough, Kent, recalls being fascinated by steam locomotives from the age of two. He is an accomplished artist who, since retiring from senior management in the retail sector, has put those artistic skills to work in a variety of ways, including painting No. 34053, which has been a permanent resident of the Spa Valley Railway since the summer of 2020 and is now its flagship locomotive.
“I had always wanted to do a painting of a big engine and Sir Keith Park was an obvious subject,” he said. “But I also wanted to do some good for the Spa Valley so decided to donate the painting, which depicts the engine on the railway near Groombridge, to raise funds to support its work and also make a contribution to the engine’s forthcoming overhaul.”
Peter said: “It is wonderful to be able to contribute to the Spa Valley in this way, and I am hugely grateful to Nigel for his generosity in donating the painting to the railway.
“I have always loved Bulleid Pacifics. I went to school by train through Clapham Junction and would see these wonderful locomotives rushing through on their way to the coast. I would also play the 1960s version of the card game Top Trumps for the tractive effort of steam locomotives, and the Merchant Navies always won.”
The 69-year-old, who lives in Tunbridge Wells and is mostly retired from clinical practice as a GP but has been assisting with Covid-19 vaccinations, has been the railway’s medical advisor for the past decade.
After presenting the painting to Peter at the railway’s Tunbridge Wells West station, Nigel said he was delighted with the reaction to the painting and the interest it generated: “I thoroughly enjoyed doing it and was very pleased it sold so quickly to someone local to the Spa Valley and who also has connections to it.”
Jonnie Pay, the railway’s commercial manager, said: “Nigel’s painting has justifiably attracted a lot of interest and admiration, and this is reflected in the excellent price Peter paid for it. The donation is a much-appreciated gesture by Nigel and a significant contribution to work on Sir Keith Park. Heritage railways like us are very fortunate to have supporters such as him and Peter who help in a variety of ways towards our determination to keep the steam flag flying.”
The imminent £350,000 overhaul of No 34053, which is owned by Southern Locomotives Ltd, will include the engine being stripped at the company’s Swanage workshop, transportation to the North Norfolk Railway at Weybourne for work on the boiler, and then a return to Swanage for reassembly.
It is hoped that the former Southern Railway Pacific will be back in action at the Tunbridge Wells-based Spa Valley Railway – where it is a major attraction – by the end of the year.