ONE of the railway’s great survivors successfully steamed into Eastbourne before passing through Bexhill towards Hastings today (Wednesday).
34028 ‘Eddystone’, a West Country class Pacific built for the Southern Railway at Brighton Works in 1946 hauled the ‘Sussex Belle’ from London Victoria on a round trip via Eastbourne and Hastings.
The locomotive was part of a class of 48 named after locations in the west of England, with a further 62 locomotives then built and named as the Battle of Britain class.
It left London Victoria this morning and headed south through the Sussex Countryside arriving in Eastbourne just before 2pm. It then left Eastbourne towards Hastings and continued on steam power through Battle and Tunbridge Wells to arrive back in London Victoria this evening.
Originally designed with streamlined air-smoothed casing, 60 of the combined classes, including 34028, were rebuilt to a more conventional design to improve some problems experienced in adhesion, maintenance, high fuel consumption and reduced driver visibility.
Following withdrawal by British Railways in May 1964 after covering 851,549 miles in service, including on some of the most prestigious duties including the Atlantic Coast Express and Devon Belle, Eddystone languished in the Woodham’s scrapyard at Barry in South Wales for 22 years before it was purchased by the Southern Pacific Rescue group and moved to begin restoration in Sellindge, Kent in 1986.
After much work, Eddystone, named after the group of rocks nine miles off the coast of Cornwall, was eventually restored to steam in 2003, working on the Swanage Railway in Dorset until boiler overhaul was required in 2014.
After several years of service following this second overhaul, the locomotive was again withdrawn after a crack was identified in the frames around the leading set of wheels, requiring further work.
The owners, Southern Locomotives Limited, decided to put Eddystone through the works required for mainline use in 2024, with return coming in September 2025.
In their heyday, both the West Country class and sister locomotives could be seen in the local area, including occasional use on the Eastbourne to Hailsham shuttles as a ‘filling in’ turn between longer duties.
