HISTORIC STEAM-HAULED PASSENGER TRAIN RUNS BETWEEN LONDON AND SWANAGE
SWANAGE ARRIVAL - 2nd May 2009

News Item and Photo Report from Andrew P.M. Wright - dated 6th July 2009
Official photographer & press officer, Swanage Railway.
Photographs are copyright Andrew P.M. Wright.
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The first London to Swanage steam train since 1967 hauled by Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacific No 34067 Tangmere arrives at Swanage on 2nd May 2009.

History was made on Saturday 2 May 2009 when a special train hauled by a huge 1940s express steam locomotive named after a Battle of Britain airfield ran between London and Swanage - for the first time since the summer of 1967.

The locomotive was streamlined unrebuilt Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacific No. 34067 'Tangmere' which departed platform two at London's Victoria station for Purbeck.

A Bulleid welcomes a Bulleid. 'Tangmere' arrives under the 1938 station canopy at Swanage. In the squint can be seen rebuilt 'West Country' class Bulleid Pacific No. 34028 'Eddystone'.

The last time that a steam train ran between London and Swanage was on Sunday 18 June 1967 - during the summer of love made famous by the Beatles.

Making the news. With cameraman Ian Da Costa, BBC TV South Today reporter Steve Humphrey interviews one of the charter train passengers after their excited arrival at Swanage.

That train was special end of steam rail tour organised by the RCTS (Railway Correspondence & Travel Society).

Basking in the summer sunshine and the admiring attentions of hundreds of people at Swanage station, 'Tangmere' and its crew get their breath back at the stopblocks. By co-incidence, the weather was the same as on Sunday 18 June 1967 when the last steam train ran from London to Swanage.

On the Swanage end was rebuilt Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacific '602 Squadron' while on the Wareham end of Standard Class 4 Tank No. 80146 - a veteran performer on the Swanage branch between 1964 and 1966.

The Mayor of Swanage, Councillor Mike Pratt, (left) and Mayor of Wareham, Councillor Malcolm Russell, (right) meet at Swanage on 2nd May 2009, with Swanage Railway Chairman Mike Whitwam in the background.

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