RAIL enthusiasts in Wellington are set to enjoy a ’summer of steam’ on the main line running through the town.
Saphos Trains, The Railway Touring Company (RTC), and Vintage Trains are all running steam-hauled excursions through Wellington over the next five months.
The first RTC steam locomotive passed through twice on Sunday (May 5), LMS Black 5 4-6-0 no 44871, which has its 80th anniversary next year.
Locomotive no 44871 was one of the last four steam engines in service on the final day they were allowed to operate on British Rail tracks on August 11, 1968.
The four locomotives took turns to pull what became known as the ‘Fifteen Guinea Special’ after the cost of tickets for the last main-line passenger train hauled by steam locomotive, from Liverpool to Carlisle and back.
On Sunday, locomotive no 44871 pulled a RTC Royal Duchy excursion from Bristol to Cornwall and back, giving residents in the Wellington area two opportunities to see it.
RTC has three London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 locomotives, known as ‘Black 5s’ and will be running three more excursions through Wellington on July 28, August 18, and September 1.
The next steam spectacle for Wellington will be on Friday, May 10, when Vintage Trains runs the 7029 Clun Castle on a two-day tour from Birmingham to Plymouth, the return journey being on Saturday.
Clun Castle will display the Z48 reporting code and leaves Birmingham at 7.45am with the last pick-up departing Oxford at 10.08am, putting it in Wellington at about 11.45am.
On Saturday, she departs Plymouth at 9.30am which should mean passing through Wellington at about 10.50am.
In 1964, the year Wellington’s railway station was closed under the ‘Beeching axe’, Clun Castle recorded the fastest steam journey from Plymouth to Bristol, in 133 minutes and nine seconds, and was the last steam train in British Rail’s western region when she hauled out of Paddington in November, 1965.
Saphos will run its return steam excursion from Paignton, Devon, to Wales on Tuesday, June 25.