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Blandford 34107

 

There were Shaftesbury, Blackmore Vale and Templecombe… and also Blandford Forum. All were railway locomotives from the age of steam with names from the West Country. Appropriately as a class, they were known as the ‘West Countries’. Because of their distinct and streamlined appearance they also became nicknamed the ‘spam cans'.

The ‘West Countries’ were designed by Oliver Bulleid who was the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway Company. The company ran trains in the south and west of England  from Cornwall to Kent before the railways were nationalised in 1947.

Locomotive Blandford (34107) was built by British Railways (Southern Region) and was the 1,000th to be constructed by the Brighton Works when completed in April 1950. In November 1952, it was renamed as Blandford Forum.

Initially Blandford was allocated to Bournemouth motive power depot which resulted in its use on the Weymouth-London (Waterloo) line. Occasionally, it might pass through Blandford on the Somerset & Dorset line. The locomotive would have also worked on the now long closed route between Bournemouth and Salisbury. Due to its versatility, Blandford Forum could be used on both passenger and freight duties.

In June 1959, it was transferred westward to a depot at Exmouth Junction where around 60 locomotives were based. The ‘West Countries’ were particularly suitable for the Region’s line between Salisbury and Exeter and elsewhere in Devon and Cornwall where the lines were highly graded and meandering. Blandford Forum would have hauled the Atlantic Coast Express which ran from London (Waterloo) and had the unusual distinction of being made up of various portions with different destinations. It would have worked the express from Exeter westwards and at various points the carriages were split for destinations such as Plymouth, Bude, Ilfracombe and Padstow.

In October 1964, as the steam era on Britain’s railways drew to a close, Blandford Forum was withdrawn from service. It was also the time when Richard Beeching was the head of the country’s railway network. His primary aim was to reduce rail operating costs and many railway lines were closed and locomotives scrapped. Withdrawal was hastened also by the transfer of all West of England Services to the Western Region in 1962 as they preferred to use their own locomotives. Having travelled 719,818 miles during its lifetime, Blandford Forum had been a reliable locomotive. It was sold to Birds Morriston in Swansea and broken up for scrap.

More recently a tribute was made to the locomotive when Hornby produced a model of Blandford Forum for rail model enthusiasts. While in May 2018, a Blandford Forum locomotive nameplate was sold for £35,000 at auction.

(Image: West Country Locomotive Blandford)





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