Latest News
May 2012
Sir Keith Park restored
From Barry wreck to a gleaming locomotive
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On 28th December 2000, Sir Keith Park was delivered to SLL's base at Sellindge. |
On 9th May 2012 a restored Sir Keith Park left Herston works bound for Bridgnorth, and a new life working on the Severn Valley Railway. |
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On arrival at Bridgnorth Sir Keith Park is winched down the low-loader and its tender is positioned by 43106. (c) R Taylor |
200 miles north, and in sunshine not rain, Sir Keith Park poses with its tender at Bridgnorth MPD. (c) M Garner |
When SLL bought 34053 Sir Keith Park in 1999 it had already been sold twice as spare parts, and was generally considered unrestorable. On 9th May 2012 it moved slowly away from Herston works on a low-loader heading for its new life working on the Severn Valley Railway. Congratulations and thanks are due to all those who worked on the restoration, all those who supported it financially, and many others who have lent a hand along the way. Much of this support was driven by a recognition of the debt we all owe to Air Vice-Marshal Park and the role he played in the dark days of 1940. This beautiful machine will be a lasting monument in his honour, and will bear his name many years into the future.
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Ron Bennett gives the front number plate a final touch of paint. |
Sir Keith Park is eased out of Herston Works, into the rain, and on to the low-loader |
Work by SLL staff to commission Sir Keith Park will start work at Bridgnorth on 14th May. It will be steamed at Bridgnorth MPD within a few days, and depending on any glitches found it will enter service shortly thereafter. Ceremonial naming and re-dedication events are likely to happen after the summer, and the SLL AGM is likely to be held at the SVR, as Sir Keith will obviously be the loco we all want to see.
Naturally there was a good deal of last minute work to complete as the count-down to departure approached. There has been a lot of work in the smokebox, on external fittings (smoke deflectors, hand rails, outer casing, etc), and in the cab.
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The pipework and fittings in Sir Keith Park's cab are now complete. (c) R Hughes |
Work on the smokebox approaches completion. The Lemaitre blast pipe is in place, though no petticoat yet. One row of superheater tubes can be seen. (c) M Garner |
There's a short video showing Sir Keith Park on the low-loader here:
Photos of recent work at Herston are in our 2012 Restoration gallery.
There is a new gallery showing Sir Keith Park at the Severn Valley Railway.
Clan Line visits Swanage
On Friday 27th April 35028 Clan Line visited Swanage at the head of the Royal Wessex, a steam-hauled special from London. This coincided with a volunteers workshop, so there was a general "down tools" to see it pass by. 34028 Eddystone "just happened" to be the Swanage Railway service loco for the day, so the two 28's were seen in steam together - the first time in a very long time.
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Clan Line was working the Royal Wessex steam special from London. It's seen here approaching Swanage, with the SLL workshop in the background. (c) Roger Hughes |
35028 Clan Line rests in the Swanage MPD as 34028 Eddystone leaves with the 16:10 service train to Norden. (c) Hugh Topham |
Full screen versions of these photos can be seen here.
Enter our 2012 photo competition and Win Norman!
Yes, in conjunction with Hornby Hobbies Ltd and Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway this is your chance to enter our new photo competition, and the prize is.....Norman! We're referring of course to Hornby's new model of our Austerity Saddle Tank which, following an extended leasing agreement, will be busy at Embsay for the foreseeable future and we'd like to record its time there with lots of photos and video clips.
The subject is simple; any photos or video clips featuring Norman taken between 1st April and 30th September 2012.
It's mainly for fun, but there will be a prize for the best photo and another for the best video clip. Each prize is one of the new 00 gauge models of the loco, generously donated by Hornby.
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Hornby have generously donated two of their new Norman models as prizes for our photo and video competition.
The retail price of this model (Product Code: R3104) is £69.99 |
Here are the rules:
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Photos must feature Norman and be taken between 1st April and 30th September 2012. It can be anything from a classic front three-quarter pose to an atmospheric close up, provided it can be reasonably seen as featuring Norman. Entrants may submit a maximum of five photos, using JPEG format, preferably in the range 300 KB - 1 Mb. Please send your entries with suitable captions to as email attachments. The closing date is 30th September 2012 and the winners will be announced by 15th October 2012.
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Video clips must feature Norman and be taken between 1st April and 30th September 2012. Any style of clip is allowed provided it can be reasonably seen as featuring Norman. Entrants may submit a maximum of two video clips which must be uploaded to YouTube (or similar online system) and be publicly viewable, with a maximum running time of two minutes. Please send the link(s) with suitable description to (If you need any help uploading your clip to YouTube please drop us a email - it's easy when you know how.)
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The closing date is 30th September 2012 and the winners will be announced by 15th October 2012.
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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/video galleries. All entries will remain the copyright of the entrant, which will be acknowledged by SLL. We will include all entries in a special SLL photo/video gallery, and feature the winners and some others on the website.
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Norman waiting to leave Embsay station (c) N. Thompson |
Norman on a test train. (c) T. Ireland |
If you're planning to visit the railway to see Norman we hope you'll take the time to buy a ticket and enjoy a ride. It's an interesting line, worthy of your support.
March 2012
Sir Keith Park
There has been an unexpected change of plan in connection with 34053 Sir Keith Park which springs from a proposal made by the Swanage Railway which we have confirmed to be in the best interests of SLL.
The Swanage Railway are doing an excellent job in caring for our locomotives, but there is only so much that they can do with available resources. For this reason, and apart from the fact that the Railway clearly doesn’t need three Pacifics to operate its timetable, the Swanage Railway Board decided to release one of the locomotives back into our care. Their choice was to retain Eddystone and Manston on the basis that much work has been carried out on both, and their team felt it preferable to keep the locomotives they know really well.
We accept the logic of their decision and are now at an advanced stage of discussions with the Severn Valley Railway with a view for a long term arrangement with Southern Locomotives Ltd. We expect, subject to final agreement, that Sir Keith Park will go directly from Herston Works to Bridgnorth around the end of April, and enter service shortly afterwards.
We have been assured by the Severn Valley that they will do all possible to replicate the events that we had planned for Swanage as far as the re-commissioning ceremony, special trains for our sponsors, etc. More details will become available in the next few weeks. While this will come as a surprise to nearly everyone, we hope you will agree that it makes good sense and support us in making it a success.
Workshop report
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The rocking grate seen through the firebox door. The RH side is in the dropped position |
The clack valves mounted on the RH side of the boiler. They are non-return valves between the injectors and the boiler. |
At the February volunteer session the first task was to assemble the rocking grate. That needed someone inside the firebox while others passed the 150 cast steel "fingers" up to the firebox door. Step forward Ray Evans, always keen to get into a tight space. He was subsequently joined by both Roger Hughes and Bob Bevis......what were they all doing in there? Anyway, for those of you who would like to see a rocking grate in action, your wish is granted:
257 Squadron
In the next few months work on the major overhaul of 34072 257 Squadron will pick up and we'll see lots of photos of a loco in many pieces. Over the past two or three years we all learned a lot more about Sir Keith Park, and his role in the RAF, so we thought we'd better start finding out more of 257 Squadron's history. A dip into the archives and a search of the web gives us the basics, and there's a filmed interview of Squadron Leader Robert Stanford Tuck on YouTube. We've put together a new webpage to collate this, and it's found under the 257 Squadron menu bar or here.
If you have any photos, anecdotes or other information about the squadron we'd like to hear from you.
Manston
Manston is still in Herston works, awaiting delivery of the new valve gear parts.
Norman
SLL recently met representatives from the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway to discuss a new leasing agreement which would see Norman staying in service at Embsay for several years.
February 2012
New Year, new gallery
2012 promises to be an interesting year for Southern Locomotives. Sir Keith Park should be in service on the Swanage Railway, and we will start work on our next project. Our Picasa galleries are very popular, notably those showing restoration work in progress at Herston. That may be due to the dashing good looks of our staff and volunteers, or maybe because our supporters like to follow the progress of the restorations coming together and see photos of components which hopefully remain hidden throughout their working life.
A 2012 section has been added to the Restoration Galleries menu to the left of each webpage. So far not many photos (for obvious reasons) but we'll keep adding them. Given the current work on Manston and coming overhaul of 257 Squadron expect many shots of the "enclosed" Bulleid Valve gear.
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Original Bulleid Pacifics have outside admission piston valves, and the valve action is powered by a rocking shaft in the inside (exhaust) space.
Manston's valve gear is currently under repair and the casing of the valve chest has been removed revealing the shaft with its outer bearing
removed, and the lever which drives the piston valve. |
Own your own Norman
Good news for modellers: In May this year Hornby will be releasing an OO gauge model of Norman in its current livery as running on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. No more details at present, but it's shown in their 2012 Range Preview webpage (scroll to bottom).
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A photo from Hornby's website showing their forthcoming model of Norman. Photo: Hornby Hobbies Ltd. |
257 Squadron on video?
2012 will be the year in which the overhaul of 34072 257 Squadron gets moving, and we need to raise around £250,000 for this over the next two years. Inevitably we will rely on our loyal band of shareholders for much of this, however we hope to cast the net wider and attract new shareholders and donors.
To raise awareness we're planning a YouTube video to recount the history of the loco, its preservation service, and the scope of the overhaul. We have a collection of still photos, and can make new video of the loco in the workshop, however it would be great to include clips of it in BR Service, or at work in the 90's at Swanage, NYMR, SVR, etc. Finding film from BR days would be a near miracle, but there must be some 90's film or video out there. Can you help us? If so, please drop an email to the Webmaster Nick Thompson.
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34072 257 Squadron seen at Fratton shed, still with its high-sided tender on 7th July 1964. (c) M Garner |
New book reveals Sidmouth photo
It's on record that 21C110 Sidmouth was named in the town of Sidmouth on 27th June 1946. The report from the Sidmouth Herald names the great and good who were present on the occasion, and someone must have taken photos, but in those post-war days local papers didn't include illustrations. However an updated edition of a book by Colin G Maggs, 'The Branch Lines of Devon' includes a description of the Sidmouth branch and has a photo of the naming ceremony. We've reproduced the photo here, courtesy of Amberley Publishing Ltd. Those representing the railway included Mr E A W Turbett, Assistant Chief Mechanical Engineer, who must have worked with Mr Bulleid. Searches reveal that he was a leading member of the Eastleigh branch of the I.Mech.E. and participated in a committee set up by Mr Stanier to look into rolling stock design.
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It's Thursday 27th June 1946, and 21C110 Sidmouth has drawn up beyond the platform canopy at Sidmouth station for the naming ceremony. Only the 'OU' of the name is visible,
and it's hard to tell who's who, except for driver W E Dubbs, and the gentleman on the far left who is presumably Rev. E F Ball, the Vicar of Sidmouth. Photo by I. Broughton, Courtesy Amberley Publishing.
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Engine Record cards
SLL volunteer Mike Frackiewicz recently visited the P.R.O. where he scanned the loco record cards for four of our Bulleids, 34028/53/70/72, though not 34010 Sidmouth's, which were not there. These cards were used to record the specification of each loco and the repairs they received during their service life. Scans of each card have been added to the Picasa Gallery for the respective loco.
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The record card of 34053 Sir Keith Park. As a "modified" loco it received quite a lot of detailed modifications over the years.
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Fleet News
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With its boiler on the frames there's still a miriad of tasks to complete Sir Keith Park. At the January volunteer's session
the front of the boiler was finally bolted to the frames, the smokebox was bolted to the boiler, and lagging and cladding the boiler continued.
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Work continues on the repair of 34070 Manston's valve gear in Herston works. Three replacement Combination Levers and Union Links will be fitted. Originally these would have been forged, however these days such items are made by a Water Jet Cutter from a steel slab. This process involves using an extremely high pressure jet of water, often including abrasive particles. As usual Wikipedia tells you most of what you might wish to know about the process.
34028 Eddystone is in Swanage MPD receiving attention to two particularly hard-to-get-at boiler stays.
80104 is in service on the Swanage Railway. At present Swanage station is closed for track drainage work, and only limited services are operating between Corfe Castle and Norden.
Norman remains at Embsay.