The next day 34052 Lord Dowding was off to Weymouth with the "The End of Southern Steam". We duly videoed it at Egham, and then again near Old Basing before setting off for Tisbury, but ominous warnings of traffic hold-ups around Amesbury threatened to wipe out our narrow time margin. This, combined with the fact that we would be covering the same ground the next day, forced us to abandon the chase. With hindsight we should have continued, as a Bulleid pacific climbing Upwey Bank is very much synonymous with the end of Southern steam, and we can only apologise to anyone who expected to see just that in this video.
Sunday 9th July, exactly 50 years on from the last day of steam on the Southern Region, and Clan Line was in fine form, motoring past Monxton and "tanking" through Tisbury at the head of "The Waterloo Sunset", bound for Yeovil.
Eschewing Yeovil and its delightful one-way system we headed for Swanage, and the Swanage Railway's "Southern Sunrise" Gala, which featured 34070 Manston, M7 30053, and 2-6-4T 80146, thought to have been scrapped in 1967, but apparently still in working order (ok it was 80104 in disguise).
Leaving Swanage it was off to Dunbridge to await Clan Line's return, then to Liss, where we had to dodge the resident bullocks, and finally to Weybridge.
5 days and 732 miles* in pursuit of steam and worth every bit.
*During those 732 miles the car's odometer clicked over to 34000 and for the next 111 miles it counted up through all 110 Bulleid light pacifics.
16 июл 2017
