Southern Locomotives Ltd

Presenter: Nick Thompson

Virtual Meeting via Zoom

How wonderful! How wonderful that we have amongst us individuals who are inspired by the romance of steam, but don’t stop at that, because they translate these warm feelings into the positive practical action required to preserve a fleet of much loved and admired locomotives. For this we should be and are very grateful. It was both intriguing and heart-warming to learn how Nick and his colleagues have gone about this (what to most of us would be a) daunting task.

In a very thorough presentation Nick covered the development of the group, the business model, the current fleet (8 locos) and lots of detail on what happens in the workshops. Nick is very active in this organisation and is, amongst other things, its webmaster. Their excellent site should be accessed for greater detail. http://www.southern-locomotives.co.uk/

Nick grew up in Woking with a view from his bedroom window of the L&SW mainline. His love of Southern Railway locomotives, especially Bulleid Pacifics has never left him. We learnt of the complexities of running a fleet of steam locos and the immense amount of work involved in getting them to be and keeping them fit for purpose. If and when you are lucky enough to experience one of their fleet in superb working order you pause and note that it has taken seven years (in the case of one of their charges Eddystone) to get the machine to this level of excellence. All of this requires: – organisation – they formed themselves into a limited company; dedication – from four paid staff and dozens of volunteers; money – 900 shareholders help provide the ‘necessary’. The degree of dedication and organisation is breath-taking and Nick gave us an insight onto the workshop arrangements and the many parts that make-up a steam locomotive.

This presentation replaced our planned talk by Adrian White who sadly died very recently. Our committee send our condolences to his family and friends.