The Thumper Tribute with a little bit of Taw Valley, 19th February 1994

19th February 1994 saw the official farewell railtour for Class 205 3H "Hampshire" units on the South Western Division of the Southern Region of British Rail. The tour was run by Hertfordshire Railtours and like the TC farewell a few weeks before covered some of the routes that these units used to work in service, including the Watercress Line. The train was identified as 1Z24, 08:20 London Waterloo circular via Bristol Temple Meads.

The units involved were 205028 in Network Southeast livery and 205029 in BR Green livery - historically this unit was the only Class 205 to never carry BR Blue & Grey livery, passing from all over BR Blue to BR Green during its previous major overhaul. This pair of 205s were also from the last batch delivered in 1962 and are sometimes known as "Berkshire" sets.

Perhaps of interest to some is the state of the end of the line at Alresford at the time of this tours visit. As the Watercress Line was closed many people walked around freely - unlikely to be allowed these days - and observed the wagons that were crashed over the top of the buffers at the end of the line during an incident and just left there. Judging by the damage it looks like something with a lot of force ran in to them. If anyone can shed a light on this please drop a message, thanks!

The train continued on from the Watercress line to Guildford, then down the Portsmouth Direct to Havant and on to Salisbury, eventually arrving at Bristol Temple Meads. On the return the two Thumpers did their best impression of "flat out" back to Reading along the Great Western Main Line for a final return to the Southern Region back to Waterloo.

In the morning and evening 34027 "Taw Valley" was seen at Waterloo adjacent to the 3H units while waiting before and after its own tour, the "South Western Swansong" that was operated by Flying Scotsman Services between London Waterloo and Yeovil Junction. In the evening both trains were next to each other at the buffers.


[Hi8 source]
00:00 London Waterloo
04:09 Alresford
05:30 Unexpected find at the end of the line!
07:43 Guildford
08:21 Salisbury
08:58 Westbury
10:12 Bristol Temple Meads
10:37 Reading
12:05 London Waterloo
15:12 Thanks for watching! Please 'Like' and 'Subscribe' :-)