Clan Line's Long-Lost Sister Is Coming Home

In the early 1950s, two Merchant Navy Class locomotives were both resident at Stewarts Lane depot in Battersea. Seventy years on, one of them is still running. The other spent decades in storage after being rescued from Barry Scrapyard. Now, for the first time since those Stewarts Lane days, there's a real chance they could stand together again.

The Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society (MNLPS), custodians of the famous 35028 Clan Line, has accepted an offer from Southern Locomotives Limited (SLL) to take on 35025 Brocklebank Line and its constituent parts. In their announcement, MNLPS said they were honoured that SLL had chosen them as suitable custodians of the locomotive, and that the acquisition marks an exciting new chapter in its history.

Two Sisters, One Depot, Different Fates

Both locomotives were built in 1948 at Eastleigh Works. Clan Line is currently the only mainline operational member of the Southern Railway Merchant Navy Class, still running railtours across the UK to full mainline standard under MNLPS's care. It was saved and purchased from British Railways in 1967, two years after the Society itself was formed in 1965 specifically to preserve a Merchant Navy locomotive.

Brocklebank Line's path was rougher. It hauled heavy express trains between London and Weymouth until 1964, then was rescued from Barry Scrapyard and spent decades in storage before SLL took it on. SLL took on ownership in 2020, and their volunteers set to work dismantling the locomotive, grit-blasting and painting the wheels, frames and other components just to hold the deterioration at bay. It's exactly the kind of "unrestorable" scrapyard project SLL has built its reputation on, having already returned engines like Eddystone, Manston, 257 Squadron and Sir Keith Park to service from their base at the Swanage Railway.

What Happens Next

MNLPS have kept expectations in check. There's no restoration timeline attached, and they've said themselves that this news will generate "considerable interest and many questions," with further information on Brocklebank Line and their plans to follow "in due course." Work is starting now to assess Brocklebank Line and establish what the locomotive actually needs, and what the wider future of the project looks like. Clan Line remains the Society's principal focus, and there's no restoration timeline or promise attached to this yet, just an acknowledgement that the two locomotives which once shared a depot could, one day, share a shed again.

That's the real story here. Not a restoration announcement, but the reopening of a possibility that's been closed since the 1960s: Clan Line and Brocklebank Line, together, the way they started out.

This article is based on a press release issued by the Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society, shared here with thanks. Details as supplied.

If stories like this one, of locomotives rescued from scrapyards and given a second life, are your kind of railway story, Read Issue Zero free to see more of what W&W covers, or browse the best heritage railways in the UK for where you can see locomotives like these in person.