Yesterday, Saturday 2nd February, 61306 ‘Mayflower’ made her return to mainline service. It double-headed the Railway Touring Company’s ‘Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express’ with 35018 ‘British India Line’.

The tour ran from London Euston to Carnforth hauled by Class 86 86259 ‘Les Ross’ and then Carnforth to Preston via Carlisle and Settle in the hands of the two locomotives.

RailAdvent filmed the train at Oxenholme Lake District, Long Preston and Hellifield with a long wait due to the weather at Long Preston, it was pretty dark!

This is the first time we have seen 35018 British India Line and 61306 Mayflower, and it was an excellent sight to see!

A brief history of 35018 British India Line

35018 was built as 21C18 at Eastleigh Works in 1945. It was the first MN class of locomotive to be rebuilt and was withdrawn from service in 1964 having done around 956,000 miles in service. 35018 spent most of its working life under BR (where it was renumbered from 21C18 following nationalisation) at Nine Elms.

After being withdrawn from service, 35018 was sent to Woodham Bros scrapyard in Barry until the end of 1979 when it was purchased by Richard Heather and John Bunch. 35018 arrived at the Mid Hants Railway in 1980 with the 6,000 gallon tender from 35035 Brocklebank Line.

A restoration soon started at the Mid Hants Railway, but the locomotive left for the Isle of Portland in 2003. However, in 2011, 35018 moved to West Coast Railways in Carnforth with the aim of returning to steam on the mainline. 2018 saw 35018 return to steam on the mainline and for the 2018 season, it was the main locomotive for the Scarborough Spa Express trains from York – Scarborough and return.

A brief history of 61306 Mayflower

61306 was built in 1948 by the North British Locomotive Company. It was built to the LNER design but was built after BR nationalisation. Initially, the locomotive was allocated to Hull Botanic Gardens depot but was transferred to Hull Dairycoates Depot in 1959 and its final transfer was to Bradford Low Moor Depot in 1967 but was withdrawn in the same year.

61306 was privately purchased for preservation at Steamtown Carnforth and is just one of two preserved B1s, the other being 61264. At Carnforth, it was painted into LNER Apple Green Livery and given the name Mayflower. In 1978, it moved to the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire, where it was a resident locomotive until 1989 when it was taken out of service for its overhaul. Mayflower was scheduled to return to Hull Dairycoates, however, the site sale meant that it moved to the Nene Valley Railway.

61306 was sold in 2006 to the Bowden family, it moved to Boden Rail Engineering Ltd in Washwood Heath. In 2013, she returned to steam being operated by West Coast Railways at their base at Carnforth. In 2014, 61306 was sold to David Buck and moved to the North Norfolk Railway. Here, the locomotive was prepared there for mainline running. It operated the Cathedrals Express from Norwich to Windsor, its first mainline run since the 1970s.

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