'Winston Churchill' Is Still With Us, I Believe As Part Of The National Collection. The Idea Was For All The 'Spam Cans' To Be Re-built But The Run Down Of Steam Towards Dieselisation Put An End To Expensive Re-building Programs. Thus Reprieved Several Examples Served In This Form Until Eventual Withdrawal. If Maintained Properly I Preferred A Free Running Spam To A Re-build, But When Run Down They Could Prove Recalcitrant Beasts. There Is No Doubt That In Their Final Re-Built Form They Were A More Reliable Machine. 

A Nine Elms Favourite For Many Years, 'Brentor' Was To Be Seen Regularly On The South Western Main Line. She Was Re-built In About 1959-60.

Looking Almost As Clean Then, As She Does Nowadays, 'Bodmin' Comes On Shed At Nine Elms During The Summer Of 1961. Well Known On The Mid-Hants Railway Where She Is Preserved In Full Working Order, 34016 Continues To Give Sterling Service, A Credit To Her Designer And To Her Current Owners Who Lavish Such Loving Care Upon Her.

By The Time I Joined The Railway The 'Merchant Navy's Time Was Nearly Over On My Section. We Still Had An Allocation Of Two For The Heaviest Boat Trains, 35001 'Channel Packet' ("Flannel Jacket") And 35028 'Clan Line' And I Remember Cleaning These Early In My Career. But They Were Sent Away For Modification And Re-Building At Eastleigh During 1959, Never To Return. No. 35015 'Rotterdam Lloyd' Then Came To Us As A Temporary Replacement To See The Summer Out But She Too Was Gone Before The 1959/60 Winter Timetable Took Effect. Thereafter It Was Thought That Our Boat Train Traffic Could Be Handled Just As Well By Our Section's Allocation Of Light Pacifics. This They Did Well Enough But They Did Have To Be Piloted By An L1 Or Superheater On The Very Heavy 'Night Ferry' Duty 

Late In 1959 And 'Clan Line' (Recently Re-built And Returned From Eastleigh But Already Filthy Dirty) Heads Through Surbiton On An Express To The West Country. 'Clan Line' Is Also Still With Us Having Been Saved From Scrapping By The Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society. She Was One Of The Best Of Her Class And Was Constantly In Traffic During Her Time As A Southern RegionTop Link Locomotive. 

The Stock Of The 'Atlantic Coast Express' Will Have Arrived At Waterloo By Now As 'Ellerman Lines' Prepares To Depart From Nine Elms Loco And Head Off To Join The Waiting Train. The Ace Was A Heavy Train And The Sole Property Of Merchant Navys During The Steam Hauled Days After The War. In The Early Fifties The Ace Had One Of The Short Lived Tavern Cars In Its Configuration. It Was Strange To See Part Of A Railway Carriage Constructed From What Appeared To Be Red House-Bricks!