Camelot Locomotive Society Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The owning group of sole surviving Southern Region Standard 5 No.73082 has celebrated their 50th Anniversary with a Special train on Monday 17 June.

The train hauled by 73082 Camelot made three round trips between Sheffield Park and East Grinstead on the Bluebell Railway.

The Societies' official anniversary date was back in March, however at that time, the Bluebell was shut for track relaying, and Camelot was undergoing winter maintenance, so an alternative date had to be found to run the special anniversary train.

Hoping for warmer and sunnier weather, they selected the 17th of June as the date for the special anniversary train, to ensure the maximum number of society members could participate in a splendid day.

Being a non-operating day at Bluebell, the Society had a free run of the whole 11 mile line, while members enjoyed catching up with one another to mark the occasion, some of whom had been with the society from the very beginning back in 1974 and who remember Camelot in steam days and at Barry Scrapyard.

It was also arranged for a few of the owning members to ride on the footplate of their engine as it made its way between the lines four stations.

Camelot was built at Derby works in 1955 and was sent new to 73A Stewarts Lane depot. From here, 73082 worked on trains out of London Victoria heading into Kent.

In 1959, with electrification of the South-Eastern Section well advanced, 73082 was transferred to the South Western Diversion at 70A Nine Elms.

Soon after being transferred, 73082 was named ‘Camelot', a name previously carried by King Arthur class locomotive No.30742.

The majority of the standard 5 fleet on the southern took names from withdrawn King Arthurs, which earned them the nickname of Standard Arthurs.

Camelot worked many trains from Waterloo to Basingstoke, Guildford, Bournemouth and Salisbury. In 1966, Camelot was withdrawn and went to Barry Scrapyard, where out of the five Standard 5s to be taken there 73082 was the only named member of the class.

In 1974, two railway enthusiasts who visited the Scrapyard conceived the idea of preserving Camelot.

Although two other standard fives were already preserved, No. 73050 & Caprotti valve gear No.73129, the chance to save the engine was too good an opportunity to miss and being the last Southern Region based Standard 5 made the locomotive unique and worthy of preservation.

Having raised enough funds to save 73082, Camelot left Barry five years later in October 1979 minus its tender, which had been sold to Briton Ferry steel works where the tank was cut off and the frame used as an ingot carrier.

Camelot made its home at the Bluebell Railway in East Sussex, where restoration began in ernest. A badly damaged tender frame was acquired and subsequently repaired before a new tender tank was made.

Having gone through many ups and downs during the restoration, Camelot was complete and entered frontline service in late October 1995.

It's since been a regular performer on the Bluebell line and is popular with footplate crews, workshop staff, the railways volunteers and indeed members of the public.

Camelot's preservation career has seen her largely based at the Bluebell, though a visit to the West Somerset Railway in 2018 and Great Central Railway in 2022 have seen the locomotive travel off the Southern Region for the first time since she left Barry Scrapyard in 1979.

She is currently approaching midway through her second boiler ticket in preservation and is next due for overhaul in 2031.

The 73082 Camelot Preservation Society continues to raise funds and look after the engine and its thanks to their foresight, commitment, dedication and ingenuity that Camelot is still able to perform and please members of the public today.

Additional information about the history of 73082 and the Camelot Locomotive Society can be found at https://73082-camelot.simplesite.com/