NEWLY RESTORED STEAM LOCOMOTIVE ‘MANSTON’ TO STAR IN GRAND STEAM GALA & VINTAGE TRANSPORT RALLY - 12th to 14th September 2008

Press Release from Andrew P.M. Wright - dated 7th September 2008
Official photographer & press officer, Swanage Railway.
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Southern Locomotive Ltd's unrebuilt Bulleid Pacific locomotive Manston outside Herston Works on the outskirts of Swanage on Tuesday 2nd September 2008. Pictured with Manston outside Herston Works is Tony Laming (left) with his son Jez Laming. Tony rescued Manston from the Barry scrapyard in 1978.

A massive steam locomotive rescued from a scrapyard 30 years ago that has cost £750,000 to restore to full working order is to star in the Swanage Railway’s annual fund-raising Grand Steam Gala & Vintage Transport Rally.

Weighing 128 tons and with a water capacity of 4,500 gallons and a tender that can carry up to five tons of coal, Southern Railway Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacific No. 34070 ‘Manston’ has been restored by Southern Locomotives Ltd at the Swanage Railway’s Herston engineering works on the outskirts of Swanage – a job that has taken more than four years.

With a tractive effort of just over 31,000 lbs and a boiler pressure of 280 lb per square inch, it is hoped to have the shining new locomotive – which is still being tested and run-in after its major restoration – in light steam for the annual fund-raising festival of steam at Swanage from Friday 12 to Sunday 14 September 2008, inclusive.

Southern Locomotive Ltd's unrebuilt Bulleid Pacific locomotive Manston emerges from Herston Works on Tuesday 2nd September 2008.

With giant six feet two inch driving wheels, Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacifics – known as ‘spam cans’ because of their futuristic air-smoothed casing over the boiler – hauled prestigious express trains between London, Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth as well as London, Salisbury and Exeter – between the mid-1940s and 1967.

The Swanage Railway’s annual Grand Steam Gala and Vintage Transport Rally features four steam locomotives – Victorian-designed M7 tank No. 30053, West Country class Bulleid Pacific No. 34028 ‘Eddystone’ from the late 1940s and two ex-BR Standard Class 4 Tanks built at Brighton in the mid-1950s – No. 80078 and No. 80104.

Southern Locomotive Ltd's unrebuilt Bulleid Pacific locomotive Manston is winched onto the trailer at Herston Works on Tuesday 2nd September 2008.

There will be an intensive train service with departures from Norden park and ride and Swanage every 40 minutes transporting visitors to the vintage transport rally close to Harman’s Cross station.

Staged in association with the Bournemouth and Poole Preservation Club Limited, the vintage transport rally features a wide range of classic vehicles, stationary steam engines, fascinating stalls, a beer tent, refreshments and live music. There will also be a model railway exhibition in the village hall next to Harman’s Cross station.

The fund-raising Grand Steam Gala & Vintage Transport Rally will also feature evening trains on the Friday and Saturday – the Saturday evening featuring an extra special train, in addition to the service train, on which food and alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic refreshments will be available.

Some of the people who restored the locomotive in Herston Works take a break in the journey at Harman's Cross as Tony Laming looks on from Manston's footplate on Tuesday 2nd September 2008.

‘Manston’ languished in the Barry scrapyard in south Wales for 18 years before being purchased by Tony Laming for the Manston Locomotive Preservation Society. The locomotive was later acquired by Southern Locomotives Ltd.

A delighted Tony and his son Jez – a small boy when his father saved the locomotive – were present at Herston Works when ‘Manston’ was winched on to a low-loader for its journey by road from the Herston Works in Swanage to Norden station.

Swanage Railway Fitter Graham Froud is seen working on Manston's footplate before the boiler is filled with water while the locomotive stands at the coaling dock on Saturday and Sunday, 6th and 7th September 2008.

At Norden, ‘Manston’ was joined to its newly restored tender – transported the day before – before the full locomotive, which is almost 70 feet in length, was carefully hauled by rail down to Swanage.

For the historically minded, ‘Manston’ was the last Bulleid Pacific to be numbered using Oliver Bulleid's unusual system and it emerged from Brighton Works in November 1947 as No. 21C70. ‘Manston’ was the last locomotive to be built by the Southern Railway before nationalisation by the Government into British Railways during 1948.

With its versatile 18-ton axle loading, an all-steel welded boiler, chain-driven valve gear, inside motion enclosed in an oil bath and ‘air-smoothed’ casing, ‘Manston’ was initially allocated to Ramsgate for duty on the main line services to London. Its power classification for passenger work was seven and for freight work it was five.

Manston at the Swanage coaling dock on Saturday and Sunday, 6th and 7th September 2008.

On 31 May 1948, ‘Manston’ made railway history when it had the distinction of working the inaugural ‘Thanet Belle’ Pullman train between Ramsgate and London Victoria.

In common with the other Bulleid numbered engines, ‘Manston’ was given a conventional British Railways number, No. 34070, and in 1950 it was transferred to the Stewarts Lane motive power depot in London for work on the important BR Eastern Section services to Folkestone and Dover.

Manston at the Swanage coaling dock on Saturday and Sunday, 6th and 7th September 2008.

‘Manston’ was also used to haul trains on the BR Central Section services to Brighton. In 1955, ‘Manston’ was moved to Dover where it was used on the Continental boat trains – including the Night Ferry.

The completion of the Kent Coast electrification in May 1961 meant that there was no longer any suitable work at Dover for ‘Manston’ and it was transferred back to Stewarts Lane and then to its last shed, Exmouth Junction, in Devon.

Manston at the Swanage coaling dock on Saturday and Sunday, 6th and 7th September 2008.

In common with the other Exmouth Junction-based locomotives, ‘Manston’ worked over the Southern's extensive system in Devon and North Cornwall as well as the main line between Exeter and Salisbury. It was finally withdrawn by British Railways in August 1964 and sent for scrap to Woodham's at Barry Island in south Wales.

Rover tickets giving unlimited train travel on the day of issue – as well as free entry to the Vintage Transport Rally – are £18 for adults, £15 for children and concessions, and £42 for families (two adults and three children.) Greater discounts apply if passengers purchase two-day or three-day rover tickets.

Swanage Railway Fitter Graham Froud is seen working on Manston's footplate while the locomotive stands at the coaling dock on Saturday and Sunday, 6th and 7th September 2008.