An epic steam train is set to roll into Plymouth next month, offering passengers a unique experience aboard a special service that recreates the final journey of Clun Castle some 60 years ago.
The colossal 80-ton steam engine, the last of British Rail's Castle Class engines to be withdrawn from service, was built in Swindon for British Railways in 1950 and boasts impressive 6ft 8ins wheels.
Despite being sold for £2,400 in 1966 to be turned into scrap, it was saved by railway enthusiasts who lovingly restored it at Tyseley Vintage Trains in Birmingham. Now, Vintage Trains is bringing this piece of history back to life by recreating its last journey from the city on the weekend of May 10 and 11, travelling through Oxford and Bristol before reaching Plymouth.
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The following day, the train will make its way to London Paddington before a diesel takes over for the final leg of the journey back to Birmingham. This nostalgic rail journey will see the Great Western 1Z48 hauled by the magnificent Clun Castle.
Vintage Trains has announced that the majority of the 330 tickets for a nostalgic journey have already been eagerly "snapped up". A spokesperson for the company shared: "We will be travelling back in time to recreate one of the final steam journeys during the days of British Rail. Clun Castle, one of the Western Region's crack express locos, hauled the train on that occasion in May 1964, for part of the route from Plymouth to Bristol."
"It reached a top speed of 96mph, notching up the fastest ever non-stop run between the cities in two hours, 13 minutes and nine seconds. And the driver Henry Roach reckoned that if he had been allowed he could easily have topped 100mph."
Clun Castle, bearing the number 7029, is famed for hauling the last scheduled steam train from Birmingham's Snow Hill and Moor Street stations, as well as pulling the final one from London Paddington.
Details and ticket booking options are available on the Vintage Trains website.
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