PROLIFIC WITH PACIFICS

FOR any other locomotive-owning group, turning out a gleaming, freshly overhauled Bulleid Pacific would be a historic milestone. But for Southern Locomotives Ltd it’s almost routine.

This rebuiltWest Country, No. 34028 Eddystone, which returned to steamon the Swanage Railway inMay, is only the latest in a long line of Bulleid overhauls and restorations the teamhas completed over a period of more than 30 years. If you had to sumup this organisation in just one word, it would be ‘prolific’.

It won’t stop with Eddystone. By the end of this year, Southern Locomotives Ltd (SLL) expect to have outshopped yet another Bulleid – this time an original air-smoothed version, Battle of BritainNo. 34070 Manston – giving them, for a time, four working examples in total. After that, the to-do list consists of a ‘fast-track’ overhaul on one of those Bulleids, returning an Austerity saddle tank to service, and, if possible, finding the funds foramajor overhaul of a BR Standard 4 tank – and, as if all that isn’t enough, tackling the restorations of two more ex-Barry scrapyard Bulleids that might have previously, and understandably, been written off as ‘no-hopers’.

Just one of the latter two would be a daunting enough prospect for most preservationists, so howwill they be doing all this, and why?

Strength in numbers

It may take onmuch more work than most, but SLL is not your average organisation. Even back in the late 1990s, when its huge collection was first starting to come together (see panel, page 55), it was already the biggest independent locomotive-owning group in preservation.

It also has muchmore support than most–more than 700 shareholders and a ‘hard core’ of nearly 30 regular volunteers, plus four full-time staff and one part-time. It’s proof that, evenmore than 50 years after the end of Southern Region steam, Bulleids are still a powerful draw.

For a whole generation of enthusiasts who grew up in the south of England during the 1950s and 1960s, these big-named Pacifics are the locomotives that represent their fondest memories.

SLL’s shareholders proved their loyalty at the start of this year,