Bulleids Go North
Having previously looked at locomotives which visited the Southern Region from elsewhere, we now look at the reverse process, the sending of SR steam off the Region during the 1960s, often at a time when the SR itself was short of serviceable motive power.
The regular operation of Bulleid ‘Pacifies’ to destinations north of the SR’s territory was generally confined to the Reading and Oxford route and the Somerset and Dorset line, where they were eventually displaced by the much mote suitable ‘9F’ 2-10-0s. However, there were some interesting exceptions, even in the pre-railtour era.
December 1960 saw the diversion of the ‘Pines Express’ off the S&D due to flooding, the service running from Bournemouth via Salisbury, Bath, Yate South Junction and thence its normal route of that time to Birmingham. Perhaps due to some enterprising enthusiast within BR, on at least two occasions this resulted in an SR ‘Pacific’ working through, not to Westbury, but to Gloucester. On the first occasion, on December 5, ‘West Country’ No. 34102 reached Gloucester with this, also working through to Gloucester, at which point someone within the SR must have woken up to this fascinating operation, and put a stop to it.
