'THE END OF SOUTHERN STEAM' RAILTOUR - FRIDAY 9th JULY [LONDON VICTORIA - WEYMOUTH]

This day trip by steam train provides a unique opportunity to visit the Yeovil Railway Centre and the popular seaside resort of Weymouth for the afternoon. This special train to mark the anniversary of the end of Southern steam will be hauled by a powerful ex-Southern Railway Pacific type steam locomotive from London Victoria to Yeovil. We continue to Weymouth diesel hauled before our steam locomotive hauls us back to London Victoria via Bournemouth. Steam power is expected to be provided by Merchant Navy Class 35018 British India Line.

Our journey to Weymouth commences from the former joint London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway’s Victoria terminus. We thread our way through Clapham Junction and cross the Thames at Barnes Bridge, and take the Hounslow loop to Staines. We will pass Woking before pausing for water at Winchfield. We then head through Basingstoke to Worting Junction, were we will take the London & South Western Railway’s main line to Andover and Salisbury. 

Leaving Salisbury, at Wilton Junction the line becomes single track. We cross the edge of Salisbury Plain and pass through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at Tisbury and Gillingham in Dorset. We cross Gillingham Viaduct and pass through Buckhorn Weston Tunnel before Templecombe, where once the iconic Somerset & Dorset Railway passed beneath our line. Travelling westwards through north west Dorset we pass through Sherborne, one of the most beautiful towns in England, before continuing with the train to Yeovil Junction where the steam locomotive will be serviced at the Yeovil Railway Centre.

Our train leaves Yeovil Junction, hauled by a diesel locomotive, and runs southwards through Maiden Newton towards Dorchester to the large seaside resort of Weymouth. There will be a break here to visit the town, with its many attractions and restaurants, before we return to London Victoria steam hauled.

Our return route will be via Bournemouth, Southampton and Eastleigh back to Basingstoke and Woking to set down passengers, followed by journey’s end at London Victoria.

Outward Journey > London Victoria (pu) - Weybridge - Woking (pu) - Basingstoke - Salisbury (sd) - Sherborne (sd) - Yeovil Railway Centre.
[Break for visit at Yeovil Railway Centre]
Yeovil Junction (pu) - Maiden Newton - Dorchester - Weymouth.
Return Journey > Weymouth (pu) - Poole - Bournemouth - Southampton Central - Basingstoke (sd) - Woking (sd) - Weybridge - London Victoria

SR Merchant Navy Class 35018 British India Line

35018 British India Line is a preserved SR Merchant Navy Class steam locomotive built by the Southern Railway in 1945. British India Line was one of the first batch of twenty completed at Eastleigh Works in May 1945, and in that month was first retained at Nine Elms shed, where it was to remain for most of its career, under both the Southern Railway and British Railways. On 24 November 1960 it was briefly re-allocated to Bournemouth's 71B shed, but in January of the following year it returned to Nine Elms 70A shed. 35018 was withdrawn from service in August 1964 and sold on to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales where it arrived in December of the same year. It was rescued from the scrapyard in November 1979, but work to restore the locomotive began only in 2012 and British India Line ran again under its own steam on the mainline in May 2017.

NB the route originally showed as departing from London Waterloo but we will try and verify this starts and ends from Victoria.

Yeovil Railway Centre

The Yeovil Railway Centre is a small railway museum at Yeovil Junction on the L&SWR West of England Main Line between Salisbury and Exeter in the U.K. It was created in 1993, in response to British Rail's decision to remove the turntable from Yeovil Junction. Approximately ¼ mile of track along the Clifton Maybank spur is used for demonstration trains. The site contains a G.W.R. transfer shed built in the 1860s, which was erected to facilitate the transfer of goods from 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge freight wagons. This is the last remaining shed of its type on its original site and has been converted to a visitor centre. The site also has an S.R. turntable and a 15,000 gallon water tower. These have been restored to working order for the servicing of steam locomotives.