2010 News Archive

News Archives

November 2010

Sponsor a tube

The response to our sponsorship appeal for Sir Keith Park's boiler has been good, after the first four weeks contributions are approaching £10,000. Our appeal was reported in the Railway Magazine, Steam Railway and the on-line Railway Herald. A big Thank You to all of those who have contributed so far, and a gentle reminder to anyone who'd like to help us: we still have lots of tubes looking for sponsors, so please do help us to meet our goal and ensure that Sir Keith Park returns to service in 2011. For details please see the Sponsor a Tube page.

SLL's Autumn Tour and Photo Competition - Eddystone heads north

In the final stage of our locos' Autumn Tour Eddystone spent over two weeks at the Churnet Valley Railway, marking the reopening of the line to Cauldon Lowe. It performed very well and been much photographed, videod and generally admired.

The competition has now closed for entries, and the winners will be announced soon. We have decided to offer three prizes, one for the best photo from each railway visited by Manston and Eddystone. Our thanks go to everyone who submitted photos for the competition, to the railways who hosted the galas they visited, to the Swanage Railway for arranging transport, and to the "owners reps" who looked after our locos while they were on tour.


Eddystone hauling a driver experience trip on the Churnet Valley Railway, seen in this competition entry from Dick Manton.		Manston on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, taken in falling rain by John Tidmarsh.

From the workshop

Progress continues on all fronts; new sections have been welded into the firebox and we're approaching the point when new stays can be fitted, however there's a long way still to go, including the tubes, plus fabrication of the ashpan and a complete new smokebox.


Dave Mitchell heats a mudhole door inside the firebox, so that it can be fitted to the hole.		The inside motion of Sir Keith Park is complete, and will disappear from view when the boiler is mounted. In the foreground the radius arm.


Outside, Howard Merrion holds the redhot mudhole door with a long piece of metal and some thick gloves.		Ron Bennett works on the electric lamps for Sir Keith Park.

More about tenders

When you see a new tender being built you start to realise that there is more to them than meets the eye. All of our locos came from Barry without their original tender, and the story of how we obtained tenders for Port Line, 257 Squadron and Eddystone is worth recording, as well as the construction of new tenders at Herston. Volunteer Howard Merrion has written a new section to be added to the Class Details page shortly. Meanwhile welding of new-build tender 002 is now complete, work continues on the fittings prior to painting.


Volunteer Peter Soper helps to install the delivery pipes underneath new Tender 002.		Tender 002, for Sir Keith Park, is now fully fabricated. Lights and other fittings are being added prior to painting.

Norman Progress

Norman has been at Embsay since 7th October and the team there have made good progress. The loco is almost complete with just some pipe runs required and the steam heating is to be fitted. It's hoped to do the steam test early in December, and for it to enter service on the Santa Specials.


Work on Norman progressing well at Embsay.		Relax, the coupling rods are not pink; that's the combination of artificial light and Photoshop!

October 2010

AGM weekend report

This year we expanded the driving and firing trips to include Wednesday afternoon and all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, a total of 24 round trips with Eddystone for 48 shareholders. We also arrange quite a few cab rides on Manston, which was running a service train, for shareholders, some wives and friends. Judging from the happy faces as our drivers and firemen climbed off the footplate, the event can be counted a success. A big thank you to the Swanage Railway and to all of our supervising drivers, firemen and guards. Some photos from the event can be found on the SLL Photo Galleries.


Shareholder and volunteer Ray Evans got stuck into firing.		Shareholders Nick Mould and Brian Hardiman


Shareholders Steve Thomas and Chris Hooker		Dawn Lawrence came to watch Chris drive but enjoyed her footplate ride.

The AGM was held in the Herston workshop for the first time, so that shareholders could talk about progress on Sir Keith Park, admire its new tender and study the boiler, minus tubes. Around 40 shareholders attended, and the Resolutions were carried nem-con; after the formalities Willie Bath explained recent progress, the remaining work on Sir Keith Park, plans for restoring 257 Squadron and 80078, and where we might hope to be in two or three years time, followed by questions from shareholders which Willie Bath answered in his own down-to-earth style!

Sir Keith Park

Progress on continues on all fronts. The boiler is the major remaining item, and the frames and motion are now close to completion. Shareholder Michael Topham took a selection of photos before the AGM:


The RH side of Sir Keith Park. The motion is essentially complete. © M Topham		The RH connecting rod nut, marked 34053 R. © M Topham


New tender 002 is almost complete. An SR fabrication drawing is mounted on the side. © M Topham		There is still a lot of work required on the boiler. The front tube plate repairs are complete, however the new rear tube plate is not yet fitted. © M Topham

Sponsor a Tube

We are asking supporters to Sponsor a Tube for Sir Keith Park's boiler. We need to raise £38,000 in the next few weeks to equip the boiler with 112 two-inch tubes, 32 Flues and 32 Superheater Elements. Tube sponsors will receive a ticket for one of Sir Keith Park's launch trains, and flue/element sponsors will be offered a driving/firing spot. To sponsor a tube costs is £65, or £475 for a superheater item. This offer runs in parallel with that offered to share purchasers who will continue to receive a print of Sir Keith Park or 257 Squadron, while stocks remain available. For details please go to the Sponsor a Tube page.

Norman

There is light at the end of the tunnel regarding our Austerity tank Norman. We've agreed a deal with the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway for them to manage the restoration of the loco and operate it until March 2012. This is a win all round; the Swanage Railway didn't have available resources to complete the work as previously planned; if it had come into the Herston works it would have delayed Sir Keith Park, and the E&BASR has experience of working on Austerities and needs such a loco. Norman moved to Embsay on 7th October and work has already started as the railway would like to be using the loco by December. It will bear the name Norman, and be finished in Brunswick green.


Norman needs its cab, a chimney, dome cover, valve cover, whistle and various fittings.		Norman's cab, in the yard of Herston works

Manston

Manston has been much in the public eye with visits to the Severn Valley Railway and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The loco performed very well and was much admired, bringing useful publicity to SLL and the Swanage Railway.

September's news featured a docket from September 1956 recording that Manston and Tangmere had swapped tenders, and posing the question "why?". The answer seems to be that Manston had received a Light Intermediate overhaul, ex-works 1st June, and Tangmere went to Eastleigh on 21st September for a Light Casual overhaul. There must have been a problem with Manston's tender, so coupling it to Tangmere got it back to Eastleigh for attention, and keeping Manston in service. Thanks to the SLL "Time Team" Richard Green and Howard Merrion for independently coming up with the clues to this mystery. For the record, these days Manston is coupled to SLL newbuild tender "001".

Eddystone

In mid-September Eddystone suffered a problem with the boiler blow-down valve which resulted in it being out of service for about a week. Apart from that it continues to perform well, not least running 24 round trips with SLL shareholders driving and firing, and we're all looking forward to its trip to the Churnet Valley.

80104

80104 continues to be the backbone of Swanage Railway services. On 22nd September it deputised for Eddystone to haul the Dorset Drum Express charter.


The Dorset Drum driving charter made six round trips with employees and customers of Coombe Castle International at the controls. Two of the visitors came from Canada and were most impressed by the loco and the warm welcome.		Dorset Drum is a brand of mature cheddar cheese the company sells worldwide. It comes from a farm near Bridport. Many of the Swanage Railway's loco department enjoyed cheese for supper that week.

80078

We plan to bring 80078 into Herston works next year as soon as Sir Keith Park vacates it. Discussions concerning the resources and finance for its overhaul are continuing with the Swanage Railway.

Sidmouth

If hits on our photo gallery could restore a loco, then Sidmouth would be in service by now. It does prove that this is a popular loco, and will get wide support when it reaches the head of the restoration queue.

257 Squadron

Our plan is to start work on 257 Squadron's overhaul as soon as work on Sir Keith Park winds down, hopefully by mid-2011. Significant boiler work is required, but the tyres and motion are in relatively good shape, and the Bulleid valve gear will require new bushes, but not a complete rebuild. Much of the boiler casing will need to be replaced.

SLL Autumn Tour and Photo Competition

We've had a good response to our photo competition. There were plenty of entries showing Manston at SVR and NYMR. Entries are still very welcome; the closing date is 30th November. Eddystone is off to the Churnet Valley Railway to take part in the celebration of their new extension on 13th - 14th November.


Ken Snowdon submitted this striking scene of Manston being headed by 53809 at the NYMR's "Somerset & Dorset" theme gala.		Jon Bowcutt's fine shot of Manston on the SVR.


C Hanley's entry shows Manston climbing towards Arley with the 9.25 from Kidderminster.		J Tidmarsh's view of Manston wreathed in steam and smoke at Goathland, 3rd Oct 2010

September 2010

SLL's Autumn Tour

We're please to announce that both Manston and Eddystone will be visiting other railways during the next few weeks:

Manston has travelled to the Severn Valley Railway SVR News to take part in their Autumn Gala (24th - 26th Sept) and it will haul a range of service trains during that period.
Manston will then move to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway NYMR News for their Autumn Steam Gala (1st - 3rd October), which has a Somerset & Dorset theme.
Eddystone will be travelling north to the Churnet Valley Railway CVR News to take part in the celebration of their extension (13th - 14th November).

Manston returned on 7th October having performed excellently and been the subject of much interest.

Photo competition

We hope you'll take the chance to visit the SVR, NMYR and CVR to see our locos during these brief visits, so to record the events we've come up with a photo competition. It's mainly for fun, but there is a prize - a copy of Richard Green's fine art print of 34072 257 Squadron.

The prize is copy of Richard Green's print of 34072 257 Squadron. Richard's well-known Locos in Profile prints retail for £29.50 each, though at present those of 257 Squadron are only available to new shareholders in SLL.

Here are the rules:

The photos must feature Manston or Eddystone away from their Swanage home during the Autumn of 2010, i.e. during their visits to the SVR, NYMR, CVR, or possibly cruising up the A34....
Entrants may submit a maximum of five photos from each railway by email only, using JPEG format, preferably in the range 300 KB - 1 Mb.
Please send your entries, with a suitable caption, as email attachments to . The closing date is 30th November 2010, the winner will be announced by 10th December 2010.
The judge will be Simon Troy, Director of Southern Locos. By submitting entries, the contestant agrees that SLL may publish copies on its website and in its photo galleries. All entries will remain the copyright of the entrant, which will be acknowledged by SLL. We plan to include a selection of entries in a special SLL photo gallery, and feature the winner and some of the best entries on the website.


34028 Eddystone ran on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway back in 2006, but none of our locos has previously visited the Churnet Valley.		34072 257 Squadron ran on the NYMR in 1991

Manston and Tangmere swap tenders

Hot news from September 1956! SLL volunteer Mike Frackiewitz has scanned a series of MPD dockets from the 1950's recording detailed happenings to several of our locos, including one which recalls how Manston and Tangmere swapped tenders. Manston had been coupled with tender 3297, and Tangmere had 3318 - these were swapped at Stewarts Lane on 5th September 1956. Presumably both were high-sided tenders as the rebuilding program hadn't started then; does anyone know why this swap was made? This and other documents have been added to the SLL photo galleries.

Docket showing the tender swap between 34067 and 34070 in September 1956. The writing at the bottom says "Mr Beasley, Please note and return to the Records Office. For K.H.Morriss"

SLL Photo Gallery News

The SLL Fotopic Gallery has a collection for each of our locos from BR days, and also collections showing restoration work since 1983. Since the Gallery was launched in September 2009 it's had about 70,000 hits (a hit = a full screen viewing of a photo) and now averages about 120 hits per day. Sidmouth and Sir Keith Park seem to be the most popular locos, though 2010 Restoration Gallery gets most hits, probably because it has additions every few weeks.

Over the years many well-known railway photographers, including Derek Idle, Mike Esau, Brian Morrison and Ivo Peters, have offered us their photos and we're happy to report that we still receive a steady stream of photos of the locos in BR days, and tips of galleries which might hold something of interest to us. Here are some recent additions - more are always welcome:


34010 Sidmouth languished for many years at Grosmont on the NYMR. It's seen here on 27th May 1984 in a photo taken by Keith Platt.		Keith Platt also offered us this view of 34072 257 Squadron at Barry, taken on 5th July 1976. This is the only colour photo we have of the loco at Barry.


A chance meeting with a friend of a friend in an Indian restaurant led to this photo of Sidmouth in unrebuilt form, taken at Eastleigh. Note the happy family on platform 2.		SLL shareholder Malcolm Garner unearthed this photo he'd taken of 80104 passing 80105 at Aberdovey in May 1965

August 2010

Sir Keith Park

Work on Sir Keith Park continues. Old boiler stays are being replaced while new cladding is fabricated. The valve gear is now largely complete and the timing will be set in the next few weeks. The tender tank has now been bolted on to the frames, and final fitting out continues.


Work on the boiler and its cladding continues.		An old stay is removed with a gas torch


A new nameplate for Sir Keith Park with RAF crest is temporarily fitted.		The coupling rods of Sir Keith Park have been removed, and the centre wheels are lifted on to rollers. This permits the centre wheels to be rotated more freely when setting the valve timing.


The tender tank has been mounted on the frames, however the sides have not been fitted. Fitting the sides subsequently reduces the risk of distortion.		The retaining bolts for the hornguides are fitted to the axle boxes of the new tender. The axle boxes are the only part of the tender which are not new-build, being taken from the tender of a Schools class loco which was used as a snow-plough until the 1980's.

Sidmouth in Sidmouth

There is growing interest in 34010 Sidmouth in the town of Sidmouth where your Webmaster is a resident. The town museum has been revamped and now includes an illustrated panel describing the life of the loco. A replica Sidmouth nameplate was made about 15 years ago, and that has recently returned to the town, and may be displayed at the museum. The replica has a Sidmouth coat of arms, whereas the original used only the Devon version; apparently Sidmouth didn't have one in those days.

As far as is known 21C110/34010 only visited Sidmouth station once in its working life and that was on 27 June 1946 to be named Sidmouth. We've tracked down the report of the naming ceremony in the Sidmouth Herald, which reads like the PR jamboree for which the Southern Railway was renowned. The driver for the day was a local man Mr W E Dunn, and representatives from the railway and the town council said nice things about each other. Oddly Mr E S Moore (Western Divisional Superintendent) mentioned how the loco could work over electrified track. In 1946 the Sidmouth Herald contained no photographs; if anyone has a photo of the occasion we'd love to see it.


Sidmouth Herald report, 29 June 1946		The Sidmouth replica nameplate, with the town coat of arms

Locos in Service

Two of our locos have suffered from service failures recently. Manston developed a disturbing knock from the middle cylinder, which proved to be loose core plugs. Fortunately the loco was immediately taken off its train and examined. The piston was repaired within a few days, and no lasting damage resulted. Standard Tank 80104 developed a bent piston rod; once again the loco was taken out of service and the rod repaired. Happily Eddystone has behaved itself in recent months, and featured with 80078 in a recent edition of BBC's Coast program.


Manston runs round its service train at Swanage on 13th August		80104 was also in service on 13th August

June 2010

Progress on Sir Keith Park

If we take a step back and compare the restoration status of Sir Keith Park to the same point in the restoration of Manston, Eddystone or 257 Squadron things are going pretty well. Having said that we still seem to have quite a mountain to climb. First, the good news; the new tender frames are nearly complete, and the new tender tank should be mounted on the frames during July; in fact they must be, as we need the floor space for another loco (see below). Similarly, work on the engine frames, springs, cylinders, brakes, valve gear, etc, is coming along nicely.


Dave Mitchell removes the heads of stays around the bottom of the firebox which need to be replaced		When its head has been removed the stay is ground flush. Ray Evans is under the boiler barrel, working on the firebox stays.

Likewise, lots of work has been done to the boiler with no major snags but it's hard to estimate how much work remains to be done, except to say "a lot", and given currently available resources the likely completion is well beyond 2010. Dave Mitchell started work on the boiler at Herston early in 2010 and steady progress has been made. The tubes and rear tubeplate have been removed, sections of firebox have been cut out where necessary, and around 300 stays identified for replacement. The front tubeplate has been built up and straightened. The crinolines have been fitted (temporarily) and cladding is being made. While some of the work is highly skilled (that's Dave's domain), other tasks such as drilling out stays and re-tapping threads are just plain hard work. Cue SLL's team of steadfast volunteers!


Some lower sections of the firebox have been cut out for replacement, revealing the boiler stays, many of which will need to be replaced.		A section of the throat plate has been removed. Framed by the thermic syphons, Tim Cheeseman is drilling into a stay so that it can be flamed out, hopefully leaving the threaded holes ready for the new stay.

Now is the time for all good men......

During the recent workshop session there were periods when seven people were working on the boiler simultaneously. Sometimes it got a bit too cosy for comfort, but it was impressive to see how much work could be achieved. However, no further volunteer session was scheduled until the end of September; we want to change that plan and mobilise volunteers during July and August so that we can keep up the pace of boiler work and maintain the overall schedule. Given everyone's holiday plans, etc, we are hoping that smaller groups of 2, 3, or 4 guys can arrange to work for a couple of days when it suits them. Simon Troy and Nick Thompson will coordinate this if necessary, or please make your own plans if you prefer.


The complex copper pipework for the injectors is in place.		Stand still for too long and Ron Bennett will paint you Buffer Beam red!

Norman moving to Herston works

Norman moved from Sellindge to the Swanage Railway in April 2009, and the plan was for SR staff to complete the restoration in the shed during the winter months. For various reasons that didn't happen, but the SR wants to have Norman available to haul light trains at the end of the season. The plan is that Norman will move into the Herston works in July and be completed over the summer months. Obviously this doesn't help the completion of Sir Keith Park, though if we can keep working on its boiler then the overall schedule need not suffer too much.

May 2010

Progress on Sir Keith Park

Work on Sir Keith Park continues to make progress, as described in the Workshop report and shown in the photo galleries.

SLL on tour

When not hard at it in the workshop, fiddling with the website, adding photos to the galleries, or trying to keep on top of their day jobs, the SLL team have been out and about:


A group from SLL visited Germany over Easter to enjoy the Dampfspektakel celebrations which featured steam running throughout the Mosel region. Large pots of black and red paint will be delivered to Herston shortly so that all SLL locos can be suitably reliveried!		SE&CR P Class tank loco 31178 has been restored and has re-entered service on the Bluebell Railway. At one stage this loco was owned by SLL, and several representatives went along to take part in the celebration on 1st May. The loco no longer bears the name Pioneer II mentioned in our March news.

Website analytics

The SLL website has recently been hooked up to Google Analytics, and we now get weekly reports of access to the site. It doesn't actually say who looks at the site, or why, but there are lots of details, some useful, some more arcane. For example, around 87% of access is from the UK; no surprise there, but who are those users in Iran, Brunei and Brasil? A big hello to them! And thanks to the 32% of users who come directly to the site, i.e. we are listed in their "favorites". 28% find us from Google, and their searches generally include the words "southern" and "locomotive", which sounds about right. Around 38% come to us from links on related sites, such as the Swanage Railway, the Mid-Hants, the Severn Valley and several on-line railway forums. We have reciprocal links with many sites, which is what makes the world-wide-web go round.

In the last month we've had 7,188 Page Views by 1,211 unique visitors. 56% of users visited the site more than once. Users generally land on the front page and head for "Latest News". From there many go to "Sir Keith Park/Restoration" and "Sidmouth/Restoration" (a page which has been updated this month due to its popularity) and to the Shareholder Scheme page. Most users look at several pages when they visit, which hopefully means they have found a site which interests them.

The photos galleries are counted separately; in the past month there have been 14,276 photo-viewings. The top photo remains that of Sir Keith Park at Barry, though by far the most popular collections are those of recent restoration work.

Thank you to all our visitors; we'll do our best to keep things updated and interesting. If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

March 2010

Progress on Sir Keith Park

As has been reported here and elsewhere, work on Sir Keith Park made good progress thoughout 2009. This has continued into 2010, and each week it's looking more like a locomotive. However the boiler arrived back in Herston in December 2009 after the rear tube sheet had been removed because our boilersmith, Dave Mitchell, preferred to undertake the work at Herston.

Dave is now hard at work, but such work is highly skilled, sometimes noisy, and doesn't lend itself to large teams, even if such skills were available. When we did the sums it became clear that to complete the restoration by October 2010 was a remote possibility which assumed no delays and no unexpected problems.


The centre big end for Sir Keith Park is being machined on the horizontal borer at Herston. This is cast as one piece, then split into two halves so that it can be fitted on to the crank, to which it is then bored to fit.		Work continues on the repairs to the boiler of Sir Keith Park. Dave Mitchell is seen inside the boiler, cutting away old stays at the firebox end. Note the two vertical thermic syphons.

It also dawned on us that although it would have been nice to be part of the Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary celebrations, albeit some weeks after the anniversary as those we wished to invite were already committed to other events, the loco would then have remained largely unused over the winter, earning no revenue while its pristine paintwork gradually dulled. So the target is now to have the boiler back on the loco, and steamed by very early in 2011, and for the loco to re-enter service at Easter.

While this timescale seems technically achievable it still won't happen without your continued support. We need more money in the form of share subscriptions, and we need volunteers, old and new, to help us complete the myriad of remaining tasks before the loco can steam again. We are still able to offer a fine art print of Sir Keith Park (or 257 Squadron if you prefer) with each new share subscription, so please keep those application forms rolling in.

Richard Green's fine art print of Sir Keith Park is still available with new share subscriptions.

34070 Manston on photo charter duty


1960's or 2010? Mike Esau's monochrome photo of 34070 on a photo charter at Corfe Castle (11th March 2010) recreates the feel of the early 60's.		With plenty of steam during a sunny moment Ian Silvester's photo has a more contemporary look, capturing the scene perfectly.

31178 re-enters service		When the locos were modified


P class tank 31178 was sold back to the Bluebell Railway some years ago, however we are very happy to record that it returned to service recently. It's been restored in SE&CR livery, and bears the name Pioneer II, Congratulations to all of those people who've worked on the loco and contributed to its restoration over the years. Photo: Paul Gildersleve.		When Bulleid pacifics were modified in the late 50's and early 60's the chain driven valve gear was replaced by conventional Walschaerts. For the inside cylinder this required an additional eccentric drive off of the centre axle, which is between the crank and the right-hand frame. When it comes to remounting the spring for the adjacent wheel the eccentric (upper right in this picture) this change makes life extra interesting, as the pin which locates the spring is longer than the gap between the eccentric and the spring, through which it has to fit.

Sidmouth in Sidmouth

Our final unrestored Bulleid pacific, 34010 Sidmouth, doesn't often receive much attention in the News section, for the good reason that right now it's not being worked on. However your Webmaster, Nick Thompson, is a Sidmouth resident, and there are quite a number of shareholders living in the Devon town too. To bring these voices together a meeting was held in Sidmouth on 16th March at which Nick told the story of Sidmouth's life in service, and the work done since it went to Barry back in 1966. Around 80 people met at the War Memorial Club for a very enjoyable evening which raised interest in Southern Locomotives and in Sidmouth's restoration. The raffle also raised a tidy sum which has been donated to the cause, and several share forms have been submitted within days of the meeting.

For display at the meeting in Sidmouth Richard Green drafted a profile drawing of 34010 Sidmouth as it is expected to appear when eventually restored. This print is not currently available.

February 2010

New fine art print of 34072 257 Squadron

Richard Green has created a brand new fine art print of unmodified Battle of Britain class 34072 257 Squadron, and 50 copies of this are being made available to new purchasers of our shares. This loco was originally restored by Southern Locomotives in the late 80's, and ran for 12 years until it was taken out of service in 2002 requiring a major overhaul, including work to the firebox. Planning of this overhaul will start during 2010 with a view to serious work starting when Sir Keith Park is back in steam. In addition to boiler repairs much of the outer casing must be replaced and the cost will run into six figures, however the work required is not on the same scale as a Barry wreck such as Sir Keith Park. If things go to schedule - and if the funds can be raised - the work could be started in 2011 with a view to it re-entering service in 2012.

Richard Green's new print of 257 Squadron shows it in as restored condition with cut-down 5,500 gallon, 9-feet wide tender and modified ash-pan.

Work continues on Sir Keith Park

Work continues on the restoration of Sir Keith Park. New cylinder and valve liners were fitted before Christmas, permitting replacement of the valve covers and the motion to be started. In parallel the brake gear is being reinstalled. The new tender frame has been turned right way up and mounted on its wheels. The boiler was returned from Williton and major work is underway; the front tube-plate is being restored, a new rear tubeplate is waiting to be fitted, not to mention a complete set of new tubes and many other vital tasks.


Preparing the main bearing surfaces of a steam loco is a highly skilled job. The white metal surface is prepared with a hand scraper tool.		Ron Neal works on one of Sir Keith Park's slidebars at the Herston works, January 2010.


Sir Keith Park's boiler is being repaired at Herston. Dave Mitchell builds up weld on the front tube plate and dressed the surface with a grinder.		Sir Keith Park takes shape; most of the running boards are now in place.


The coupling rods are now fitted to Sir Keith Park		Howard Merrion, a regular SLL volunteer, is seen here working on a brake component for the new tender.

Sir Keith Park - can you help us fill in the gaps?

What happened to Sir Keith Park when it left Barry - please can you help us? As the completion of Sir Keith Park gets closer we would like to fill in the story of its rescue from Barry and eventual restoration, but there are many gaps. We know that it was purchased in 1981 and moved to Hull Dairycoates, but who then owned it, what work was carried out, and are there any photos from that stage?

Subsequently it was at Crewe, but who was the new owner, what was the plan, and are there any photos?

Then it moved to Thingley Junction, near Chippenham. Once again, who owned it and what work was undertaken?

We know it was then sold to Jeremy Hosking and moved to Williton, but dates and photos would be good. We'd really appreciate your help filling in the details of the story, particularly if you can also send a photo. Please email nicksidmouth@gmail.com

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January 2010

Eddystone features in Best of British

34028 Eddystone is the subject of a two page article in the January edition of Best of British magazine. The article was written by Christopher Nicholson whose main interest is lighthouses. He notes that Eddystone is the only example of a loco named after a lighthouse. The article features photos of Eddystone at the West Somerset Steam gala in 2009 and another from our collection.