The star of next weekend’s Swanage Railway Spring Steam Gala will be the historic locomotive that hauled the funeral train of King George VI.

Britannia Class Pacific No. 70000 Britannia had the honour of hauling the funeral train from King’s Lynn in Norfolk to London in February 1952. At next weekend’s Steam from Friday, 24th March to Sunday, 26th March, Britannia will operate services alongside British Railways Standard Class 4 2-6-0 steam locomotive No. 76084.

Standard Class 4 locomotives were based at Bournemouth in the 1950s and 1960s for use on passenger and freight trains across Dorset and on the branch line from Wareham to Corfe Castle and Swanage.

During the Spring Steam Gala, an intensive service of steam trains will operate between Swanage, Corfe Castle, and Norden, then a further four miles to just past Furzebrook to the River Frome, which is within sight of Wareham.

A rare feature of the Gala will be the chance to ride in a 1950s brake van between Swanage and Corfe Castle, with the re-creation of an evocative freight, with tickets available for either single or return brake van rides.

Other locomotives operating during the Gala will come from the Swanage Railway’s home fleet, including Southern Railway U Class No. 31806, which was a familiar sight on trains to Swanage during the 1950s, and Southern Railway Bulleid Pacifics Nos. 34028 Eddystone and  34070 Manston.

Throughout the Gala, the shop at Swanage station will be open as well as the museum and cinema coach in the restored Victorian goods shed at Corfe Castle station. It is also hoped to open the ‘have a go’ signal box museum at Corfe Castle station, provided there are volunteers available.

An additional attraction open throughout the weekend next to Norden station will be the Purbeck Mining Museum, which also has narrow gauge diesel trains that will be running between 11am and 4pm. Museum volunteers will be on hand to answer questions about the fascinating 2,000 year history of ball clay mining on the Isle of Purbeck.

Tickets for the Spring Steam Gala train, including the brake van rides between Swanage and Corfe Castle, can be purchased online at swanagerailway.co.uk.

Trevor Parsons – the volunteer chairman of the Swanage Railway Company which runs the trains for the Swanage Railway Trust – explained: “With five steam locomotives in operation, and trains running along our nine miles of line from Swanage to the River Frome, within sight of Wareham, our Spring Steam Gala will be an evocative occasion not to be missed – a celebration of all that is wonderful and fascinating about steam.

Trevor, a volunteer signalman and train guard as well as a Swanage Railway Trust director, added “Built at Crewe, and completed in January, 1951, Britannia was the first British Railways steam locomotive to be built to a new design, known as a Standard design, and No. 70000 was the first of 55 Britannia class locomotives to be built.”

Gavin Johns, Swanage Railway Trust chairman and a volunteer signalman on the railway, explained: “Britannia was the first steam locomotive of the new early 1950s range of Standard designs to be built by British Railways aimed at taking our country’s railway network through the 1950s and the 1960s and replacing worn out late Victorian and Edwardian steam locomotives.

“The early 1950s saw British Railways design a range of standard steam locomotives, of varying power classifications, that shared common parts with the new steam locomotives being more efficient as well as cheaper to operate and maintain,” added Gavin who is a volunteer signalman on the Swanage Railway.”