BACK in 1964, as a young rail enthusiast, I travelled on the very final Atlantic Coast Express from Waterloo to the West Country. It was one of the great named trains of the world, and on this last sad occasion, it was hauled by Merchant Navy class No. 35022 “Holland America Line”, one of the most powerful passenger steam engines ever built in Britain.
On Saturday, 60 years later, I travelled – this time with my son – on a recreation of the journey behind sister engine “Clan Line”, miraculously rescued from the scrapper’s torch. The autumn sun shone as we steamed from London to Exeter, Bristol, Bath and Salisbury in a day of poetry and nostalgia. The veteran loco performed faultlessly, reaching speeds of 75 mph at times. Many hundreds of folk turned out at the trackside to wave
As we came to a rest at the buffer stops at Waterloo after a very long day, I reflected on how marvellous it is that in this homogenised age, it is still possible for these giants of steam to go through their paces on modern tracks. Network Rail receive many brickbats, but we must be eternally grateful to them for this.
