E 828 & 34027 "Taw Valley" with "The Maunsell", 26th September 1993

On Sunday 26th September 1993 Flying Scotsman Services ran a charter train that included two former Southern Railway steam locomotives plus a third locomotive that was one of the last to be built at Eastleigh.

At Eastleigh E6003 [73003] "Sir Herbert Walker" left the train to head in to the works to collect the support coach for Maunsell S15 E 828. Seen in the yard at Eastleigh was a reasonable cross section of old and new, with 33s, 37s & 73s mixing with new class 60s. At the platform E 828 and rebuilt Bullied West Country Pacific 34027 "Taw Valley" are seen getting steam up for departure.

After that, E 828 & 34027 are seen taking their turn on the turntable at Yeovil Junction. Due to lack of maintenance the vacuum powered rotating mechanism on the turntable was not working and both locomotives had to be manually turned. Considering the weight involved it was surprising how few people were actually needed.

The train ran back from Yeovil Junction to Salisbury where E 828 was removed from the front and ran light to Eastleigh. 34027 took the train on to Basingstoke where it too was removed to be replaced with E6003 for the return to London Waterloo. Of note during the engine change was the ECS of Hertfordshire Railtoiurs "The Wight Cat" which was returning to Bournemouth leading the 4-TCs 410 & 417 with 33109 & 73106.

As I alighted at Woking, E6003 is seen leaving there with the train. As the train dissappeared 37377 (previously 37200 and D6900 as built) was seen waiting at the up slow platform to depart light engine which it eventually did. Also at Woking was 33051 "Shakespeare Cliff".




[Hi8]

00:00 Eastleigh
03:54 Yeovil Junction
21:24 Basingstoke
25:45 Woking