SOUTHERN RAILTOURS THAT FIT THE ‘BIL’
Rebuilt ‘Merchant Navy’ British India Line comes home for the first time since 1964.
weymouth, eastleigh, salisbury, this is what bulleid fans had been waiting for
You can take a Bulleid away from the Southern – but you can’t take the Southern away from a Bulleid.
A thought like that could easily have passed through people’s minds in recent weeks, when British India Line returned to home ground for the first time since 1964 – and looked totally, completely, and utterly at home. The rebuilt ‘Merchant Navy’ hauled July 6’s ‘Bournemouth Belle’ and July 9’s ‘The End of Southern Steam’ trips for the Railway Touring Company (see SR489 and News), in what was a longawaited foray south from home base in Carnforth. It’s now two years since No. 35018
returned to the main line after restoration from Barry condition, in 2017 – but Weymouth, Eastleigh, Salisbury, this is what Bulleid fans had been waiting for. (They just need it to return south now…)
Yet, what of that other ‘Merchant’ – the one that’s represented the big ‘Pacifics’ on the main line since the 1970s? Clan Line has been doing its stuff too and – maybe ironically – not only on home metals. Indeed, on July 10, one day after the 52nd anniversary of the end of Southern steam, it hauled the ‘British Pullman’ from Victoria on an itinerary in which passengers alighted at Warwick Parkway, then rejoined at Stratford-upon-Avon later. That job brought not only the unusual sight of No. 35028 servicing at Tyseley in the interim, but also another homecoming of sorts: Clan Line lifting a train from Stratford-upon-Avon, just as it regularly did in the 1980s. Another such job is planned for October 9.
Talking of anniversaries, September brings a more recent one of some significance… 1994 was when No. 35028 became the first air-braked ‘main liner’ of the modern era and thus able to start its work on the Pullmans.
Before that though, August 10 brings what Paul Blowfield from the Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society describes as a “mega-trip”: nearly 400 miles from Waterloo to Exeter and back (the return of the UK Railtours-promoted tour is via Bristol and Salisbury). Here’s hoping for some swift scheduling…