The story of ‘Battle of Britain’ Class Pacific No. 34067 is a remarkable one.
Left for dead at Woodham’s scrapyard at Barry following its withdrawal in 1963, Tangmere was rescued from the ‘graveyard of steam’ in January 1981 and initially taken to the Mid-Hants Railway for restoration.
The locomotive was then transferred to the old railway works at Swindon where a great deal more restoration took place. To speed up the restoration to main line condition, No. 34067 was moved again to the workshops of Riley & Co at Bury where a huge amount of work took place making it one of the most complex and expensive restorations of a Barry locomotive to date.
Finally, in 2003, Tangmere emerged from the works resplendent in its BR green with nameplates and shield attached. There then followed a series of test trains on the East Lancs Railway where the locomotive was put through its paces before leaving via the main line link at Castleton for its test run on Network Rail. With light test runs and a loaded test run completed, Tangmere began its new career on the main line and made its way south to its new base at the Old Oak Common depot in west London.
We see many of its first passenger turns out of London Victoria which took it to various south eastern coastal locations. The British Pullman hired Tangmere on many occasions – we see it with the Pullman coaches at various points.
The locomotive was also hired to take a series of trains to and from Penzance, the first time that an original Bulleid Pacific had been into Cornwall since 1964.
We end with the now-closed Folkestone branch and see Tangmere tackle the 1 in 31 climb.
Produced by - Kingfisher Productions
Running time - 120 Minutes
DVD only
