34067 Tangmere

Battle of Britain and West Country Class Locomotives

These locomotives were introduced in 1945 by the Southern Railway to a design by Oliver Bulleid. Tangmere, named after the military airfield in Sussex, is therefore a Battle of Britain class locomotive, completed at the Southern Railway’s Brighton works in September 1947 and given the number 21C167. This unusual number is based on the ’continental’ system of numbering locomotives as favoured by Bulleid. Following the nationalisation of Britain’s railways Tangmere was renumbered 34067 in July 1949.

During its time in service Tangmere worked out of sheds at Stewarts Lane (London), Salisbury and finally Eastleigh. After covering almost 700,000 miles, Tangmere was withdrawn from service on 16 November 1963. In April 1965 Tangmere was moved to Woodhams Bros scrapyard in Barry, South Wales. Later now owned by the late Brian Pickett, Tangmere moved to the Mid-Hants Railway in Hampshire for restoration in January 1981. However, most of the restoration has taken place in recent years at the Ian Riley engineering works at Bury, Lancashire. Finally, early in 2003 Tangmere was returned to steam on the East Lancs Railway. In March of that year Tangmere was returned to mainline running and was a regular performer throughout the country. 

In 2016, the locomotive was withdrawn for boiler work to be undertaken and returned to traffic on October 2021 with the refurbished boiler from 34073 249 Squadron. Tangmere’s main line duties resumed in January 2022 and can be seen working charters once again. Tangmere is owned and operated by the West Coast Railway Company from its base at Carnforth.