Midsomer Norton to welcome ‘Somerset & Dorset’ locomotive
A MEMBER of a locomotive class with a Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway pedigree will revisit the line for a special celebration to mark the 60th anniversary of the last run by the fabled‘Pines Express’ over it.
Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T No. 41312 is to visit the Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust base at Midsomer Norton to haul passenger trains on September 17/18 during The Pines Remembered weekend.
While No. 41312, which was built at Crewe in 1952, was not itself an S&D locomotive and spent its entire BR working life on the Southern Region, fellow class members were based for a period at Bath Green Park.
They hauled passenger trains such as the Bath to Binegar and the Templecombe to Evercreech Junction local services, and were often used as banking engines to support heavier trains over the steep gradients of the northern part of the line. They would have been seen passing regularly through Midsomer Norton in the 1950s.
The Manchester to Bournemouth ‘Pines Express’ was hauled across the Mendips by locomotives such as an LMS 2P, a BR 5MT, or a 9F. The last ‘Pines Express’ on the route on September 8, 1962, was hauled by 9F No. 92220 Evening Star, the last steam locomotive built for BR at Swindon Works.
A trust spokesman said: “Sourcing an appropriate, available locomotive proved difficult for the Somerset & Dorset Railway at Midsomer Norton, and coupled with this is the fact that the facilities required to prepare, coal, and water such a locomotive do not currently exist on the railway.
“The visit of the Ivatt tank is a fitting tribute to the historic locomotives that ran over the line in the 1950s and 1960s, and we will be recreating the scenes of a S&D local train.”
Because of the anticipated public demand, tickets will entitle the holder to one trip behind No. 41312 at an allocated time. In addition, one of the resident steam locomotives will be hauling a second train and the ticket includes unlimited rides on it throughout the day.
Services hauled by No. 41312 will depart at 10am, 11am, noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3.10pm, 4.10pm and 5.10pm. Home fleet locomotive-hauled services will depart at 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm, 2.30pm, 3.40pm and 4.40pm.
Photographic charters featuring No. 41312 will also run on Thursday, September 15 and the following day.
The ‘Pines Express’ ran daily between 1910 and 1967, at first jointly run by the Midland Railway and LNWR in competition to an LSWR/GWR service between Birkenhead and Bournemouth. It first carried the name ‘Pines Express’ on September 26, 1927, and is believed to have been named after the pine trees growing in the steep-sided gorges known as chines, which are a distinctive feature around Bournemouth area.
After the ‘Pines Express’ ceased to run over the S&D, services ran via Oxford, Reading, Basingstoke, and Southampton. In 1964, a ‘Pines Express’ was the last passenger service that used the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway before that line closed to all traffic by 1967.
From October 4, 1965, the Pines Express’ was extended to Poole. The last train ran on March 4, 1967.
As reported in News, pages 36/37, No. 41312 will also feature in the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s S&D-themed Cotswold Festival of Steam on July 3-5.
Meanwhile, following the granting of outline planning permission in November 2019, the trust is constructing rolling stock sidings on land at Somervale. The scheme was delayed by the pandemic, during which time the trust identified a preferred site for a stock maintenance shed on land off Tunnel Lane and has commissioned geotechnical ground investigation surveys ahead of an application to obtain full planning consent.