Yesterday, on Monday 16th May 2016 35006 P&O made her triumphant return to steam after over 30 years of painstaking restoration by volunteers at Toddington on the GWSR. Thanks to the generosity (and slight disorganisation 😉 ) of my co-bloggers (thanks again chaps!), I went along to the shareholders’ and supporters’ launch ceremony. When I…
Good evening, Following the popularity of my first review looking at the Black 5, Bigjigs have kindly sent me another loco to review and its no great surprise that I went for the ranges only Bulleid locomotive – the Bluebell Railway’s 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair. Class: Rebuilt West Country / Battle of Britain class Use: Express Passenger and…
Today, the Watercress Line’s Bulleid brake coach 4211 reached a significant milestone by being sent to Alresford for vehicle acceptance. All being well it should enter service within the next few weeks. The restoration of this beautiful wooden bodied carriage was all the more incredible when you consider that much of it was newly built…
Good evening, It’s been a couple of months since I have written a volunteer diary entry on my experiences working on Canadian Pacific but with most of the work focused around cleaning the frames and various components on the locomotive it seemed sensible to hold fire until I have something actually interesting to report. The big…
Good evening, today I am writing about something rather different. Instead of focusing on a steam locomotive I will be looking at a tender, in particular tender 3116. Tender 3116 Tender 3116 was one of the first series of 5,000 gallon Bulleid tenders built at Ashford works. It entered service in December 1942 behind 21C6,…
Good evening, Yesterday was one of the few times a year that a steam special passes close to my house so I planned to make the most of it. Tangmere is always a locomotive I liked seeing, the weather was cold but sunny which is great for photography as the smoke and steam effect is…
Good evening, Yesterday rebuilt Bulleid Light Pacific locomotive no 34046 Braunton hauled the Solent and Sacrum railtour out of London Waterloo heading for Salisbury, on the return trip she travelled down the south coast to Fareham before thundering up the Portsmouth direct to London Waterloo. Itis quite rare that a steam service is allowed up this…
Good evening, Today was the last Dorset Coast Express service of the season, the weekly express which runs from London Victoria to Weymouth is a favorite of mine and allows me to see some great mainline steam before working on 35005 Canadian Pacific inside Eastleigh works. The last service was hauled by unrebuilt Battle of…
After what seems forever we are back!!! On Wednesday morning I received a text from our project leader saying that Alrington had given us a couple of crane operators for the afternoon. Yes the day of the big lift has arrived. The beast upon my arrival.
The next locomotive in the series from Simon’s 35005 ‘Canadian Pacific’ is 35006 ‘Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co.’ (usually called P&O!) and is a rebuilt Merchant Navy Class. During its working life it had a very similar life to Canadian Pacific being rebuilt some time in the 50’s. 35005 was of course bought by Steamtown…
Loco Yard 