#34016

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At this time the Mid Hants Railway was having some problems with their recently laid track between Alton and Medstead and the steam engines were literally being shaken apart running over it. The solution was, whilst the track was repaired, to exchange engines at Medstead and for a Diesel to take the train onto Alton. So in this picture taken around 1986, West Country Pacific Number 34016 Bodmin is waiting at Medstead for the returning service., whence to replace the Class 25 Diesel and continue the service to Alresford.  Bodmin was originally built with “Air Smoothed" casing similar to Tangmere (of which I published pictures previously) Oliver Bullied, the designer of these fine locomotives, Incorporated some revolutionary ideas in the construction of the class, unfortunately a bit too far ahead of their time.When the engines became the property of British Railways it was decided to rebuild them to a more conventional design .Bodmin was therefore rebuilt to this form which still made for a very handsome piece of engineering.