17 June 2021 · Southern Locomotives Limited

Presenter: Nick Thompson

At the June joint meeting with the Marlow and District Railway Society our speaker was Nick Thompson of Southern Locomotives Limited who talked to us about their activities and locomotives. Nick introduced the company as a not for profit organisation that currently owns eight locomotives and uses Herston Works and an open air site at Sellindge in Kent for their restoration and overhaul activities. SLL has over 700 shareholders who help to invest in the locomotives, and the locomotives earn money by being hired out to Heritage Railways. SLL’s business model works for them as they have become a well organised outfit, with about 70% of their income coming from locomotive hiring and 30% from their shareholders. Nick also noted that they have not had any of their locomotives certified for mainline running, and does not see that happening in the near future. The first locomotive that became part of SLL was ‘Port Line’ in 1982 followed by 34072 ‘257 Squadron’. They were initially based in the old Swindon Works for restoration, but were relocated when Tarmac started to repurpose the site. They also agreed to help finance the restoration of 34072 with a loan, which SLL were able to pay back. SLL currently own six Southern Pacifics, one BR Standard Tank and one Austerity tank. The latest acquisition being 35025 ‘Brocklebank Line’ in 2020. SLL do a lot of the restoration / overhaul work themselves, but outsource larger items, such as boilers to companies with the necessary equipment. Nick then detailed the histories of each of the locomotives and showed us their current status. Finally, Nick showed us some of the activities undertaken in Herston works looking at the restoration of such items as wheelsets, valves boiler casings and frames. One important point is that all insulation is now a Foil / Fibreglass sandwich, with all asbestos removed. He also noted that several tenders have had to be built from scratch, as few of the locomotives had tenders when rescued from Woodhams yard. Nick finished by saying that the business model required 3 or 4 locomotives to be operating at any one time to provide income for the overhaul / restoration of others, and that since the 2020 Covid-19 situation, income has been dramatically reduced but is optimistic for the future. All in all, a very interesting presentation and we wish SLL a healthy future when we can all get back to normal.

Report by: Steve Ollive