HISTORY TO BE MADE WITH THE FIRST 1940s BULLEID PACIFIC STEAM LOCOMOTIVE RUNNING TO EUSTON IN LONDON SINCE 1948!

News Item from Andrew P.M. Wright - dated 26th November 2011
Official photographer & press officer, Swanage Railway.
Photographs are copyright as noted
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Driver Mel Cox on the footplate of Tangmere at London's Waterloo station - Photograph Andrew P.M. Wright

History is to be made today, Saturday, when a Bulleid Pacific express steam locomotive runs into London's Euston station for the first time since 1948 - when the last Olympic Games was staged in the Capital.

Sixty-three years on, at the controls of the mighty 87-ton restored Southern Railway Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacific No. 34067 'Tangmere' will be a veteran Dorset railwayman - Mel Cox from Swanage.

Driver Mel Cox on the footplate of Tangmere leaving Corfe Castle on the Swanage Railway with the first Swanage to London steam train since the summer of 1966, in 2009.- Photograph Andrew P.M. Wright

Named after a West Sussex Second World War airfield, 'Tangmere' departs Swanage station with the 500 ton eleven-coach Capital Christmas express charter train at 8am on Saturday, 26 November, 2011, for its five-hour historic run to Euston station in north London.

Tangmere at Corfe Castle on the Swanage Railway earlier in 2011 - Photograph Andrew P.M. Wright

With more than 400 passengers on board the special festive train, 'Tangmere' is due to steam into London with the first ever Swanage to Euston train just after 1pm - the first ever Southern Railway Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacific steam locomotive to haul a train into Euston station since 1948.

Tangmere at Corfe Castle on the Swanage Railway earlier in 2011 - Photograph Andrew P.M. Wright

A part-time driver for West Coast Railways, Mel Cox said: "It's a real thrill to be driving the first ever Bulleid Pacific class express steam locomotive into London's Euston station since 1948 - the last time the Olympic Games were staged in the Capital - and make an important piece of railway history.

Tangmere crosses Grange Road, Creech, on Friday 25th November 2011 - Photograph Andrew P.M. Wright

"Designed by the highly respected Southern Railway chief mechanical engineer Oliver Bulleid during the Second World War - and in its original 'spam can' streamlined boiler casing - 'Tangmere' is a remarkable engine and like a finely oiled sewing machine. It's sheer Bulleid brilliance.

"'Tangmere' completed almost 690,000 miles for the Southern Railway and then British Railways between 1947 and 1963 - it's a glorious throwback to the glory days of steam train travel in the south and west of England.

Tangmere arrives at Creech Bottom, on Friday 25th November 2011 - Photograph Andrew P.M. Wright

"Driving her on the main line to London, it's hard to believe that 'Tangmere' has been restored from a rusting hulk rescued from a south Wales scrapyard to the gleaming steam machine that people see today.

"The Bulleid Pacific class steam locomotives used to haul express trains from the south and west of England up to London at speeds of up to 100 mph," explained Mel who is also the operations manager for the Swanage Railway.

Mel Cox has been a professional railwayman since the early 1960s. Growing up in Bournemouth, he was a cleaner and fireman at Bournemouth station's motive power depot during the final years of steam.

Tangmere arrives at Creech Bottom, on Friday 25th November 2011 - Photograph Andrew P.M. Wright

With the end of steam-hauled trains in southern England during early July 1967, Mel switched to working on diesel trains - first as a second man (driver's assistant) and then as a fully fledged driver.

Mel worked as a fireman on steam trains between Wareham, Corfe Castle and Swanage from the mid-1960s; also working on the line when it switched to diesel trains between 1966 and until the end of the Purbeck branch in 1972.

Built at Brighton for the Southern Railway in 1947, 'Tangmere' was named at Brighton by Wing Commander W.G. Clouston during September 1967 after the Second World War Royal Air Force airfield near Chichester in West Sussex.

Tangmere at Corfe Castle earlier in 2011 - Photograph Andrew P.M. Wright

Tangmere airfield played an important part in the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940 as well as dropping Special Operations Executive secret agents deep into Hitler's Nazi-occupied Europe.

Southern Railway Bulleid Pacific class express steam locomotives worked into Euston station as part of the 1948 locomotive exchange performance trials on the Midland Region of the newly nationalised British Railways.

Swanage Railway service details are available from the Swanage Railway on 01929 425800 - or by following the links in the index on the left of this page.

To see the full set of photos of Tangmere, please scroll down the page.

To view a larger version of any photograph on this page, just click on the thumbnail photograph to view a full size version, and then click on CLOSE or 'x' on your keyboard to close it and return to this page.

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