34010 Sidmouth

34010 Sidmouth is Southern Locomotives' second oldest loco; only Norman is older. It was the tenth Light Pacific to be built, in September 1945, and ran on BR until withdrawn in March 1965 when it was moved to Barry scrap yard. There it lay until 1982 when it was bought by Mr Graeme Walton-Binns and moved to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The plan was that the NYMR would restore the loco and use it on the line, however the resources to do this proved to be unavailable. After 15 years at Grosmont it was offered to two SLL supporters, Norman Taylor and Peter Wood, though it was finally acquired by SLL and moved to Sellindge in 1997 where work commenced.


34010 Sidmouth at Woodham's scrap yard, Barry, 11th January 1981. Photo: M Garner.		Sidmouth's boiler is currently at Bridgnorth station on the Severn Valley Railway. Photo: N Thompson

Subsequently Sidmouth was leapfrogged in the restoration queue by Sir Keith Park because of the strong historic associations of this loco, which led to generous support being offered towards its restoration.

SLL was in the process of concentrating all of its operations at Herston, and the loco moved there in 2006. Today Sidmouth's frames are in Swanage, the boiler is at Bridgnorth, and many components (in various stages of restoration) are at the Herston works.

Richard Green's vision of how Sidmouth will look when restored. No copies of this print have been produced.....so far.

It will be several years before Sidmouth reaches the head of the queue; Sir Keith Park must be finished (2010/11), 257 Squadron overhauled (2011/12) and 80078 also needs an overhaul. In practice this means that little will be done on Sidmouth until 2013. Meanwhile the loco has a steady stream of supporters (not least in the town of Sidmouth), and attracts a surprising amount of interest in the wider community.

Restoration to date

Winter 1988/9

Sidmouth after removal of the boiler and the front bogie and rear trailing truck

The first part of any restoration is to dismantle the loco, starting with the boiler, the largest and heaviest component. A small team spent a weekend removing countless rusty nuts, bolts and other fittings that either held the boiler in place or were attached to it. A crane was used to remove the boiler, and also to lift the frames so that the bogie could be removed. The front bogie was then dismantled and the boiler tubes were removed. The boiler was needle-gunned and painted to prevent further deterioration.

Spring 1999

All remaining motion, brake and sanding gear was removed. The chassis was jacked up for the difficult task of freeing the axle boxes and the wheelsets removed. Bulleid Pacifics use steel axle boxes rather than brass or bronze; there's nothing inherently wrong with that, though after 30 years of neglect they do tend to seize in the horn-guides.

The frames ready for cleaning and painting

Summer 1999

A crane was hired to do more heavy lifting, and on 17th July 1999 the frames were lifted from the wheels. The frames, boiler, front and rear trucks were grit blasted and painted.


Removal of a Valve (May 1999)		The wheels after grit blasting and painting

2006 Herston

The bogie and trailing trucks were moved to Herston for overhaul. The frames were moved to Swanage and remain adjacent to the railway. During the year the tyres on Eddystone slipped while in use on the NYMR; Sidmouth's were fitted to Eddystone temporarily, and were then sent to Buckfastleigh for re-tyring. Subsequently these were used on Sir Keith Park, whose will be used on Sidmouth. Sidmouth's boiler needs at least £150,000 of restoration work; its condition was not helped by the fact that the top cladding was not properly removed when it left Barry.