World War Two steam train 'Canadian Pacific' returns to the rails in England

Record ID: 1985385

  • Title: World War Two steam train 'Canadian Pacific' returns to the rails in England
  • Date: 19th March 2025
  • Summary: ALRESFORD, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, UK (MARCH 19, 2025) (REUTERS) (PART MUTE) RESTORED STEAM TRAIN, THE CANADIAN PACIFIC IN STATION NUMBER ON CANADIAN PACIFIC VARIOUS OF UNVEILING OF RESTORED STEAM, TRAIN THE CANADIAN PACIFIC (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF HERITAGE RAILWAY WATERCRESS LINE, REBECCA DALEY, SAYING: ''There's a huge amount of messaging for the next genera
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  • Keywords: Canadian Pacific train world war two
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Europe,Human-Led Quirky,Human-Led Stories
  • Reuters ID: LVA006894514032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The 'Canadian Pacific', a 1940s steam train that took soldiers and supplies to England's south coast during World War Two, returned to service on Wednesday (March 19), taking on board volunteers who spent 14 years reconditioning it and relatives of those who built it.
    ''It was built in the depths of the wartime....Britain's all alone ....and it's being supplied by all kinds of shipping lines to bring the food and the material into into the UK,'' Rebecca Dalley, chief executive of a heritage railway Watercress Line, which operates the train, explained at the launch event.
    '''It was really unusual in those days to actually have a new locomotive ...so designer, Oliver Bulleid, was extraordinary in his ability to persuade the government to do that.'' She said.
    Billowing smoke from its chimney, the Canadian Pacific set off from the market town of Alresford, in southeast England, for an inaugural journey to nearby Alton marking the completion of a restoration project that began in 2011.
    One of the volunteers for the project, 78-year-old retiree Stephen Wilson, said he believed his late mother could have been one of the many women involved in building the train in 1941, while men were away fighting.
    "It's the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people and seeing it... (is) just brilliant," he said with a big smile as he stood next to the green locomotive.
    The train was named after the Canadian Pacific shipping lines that crossed the Atlantic during the war to deliver military and civilian supplies to Britain. Many such vessels were destroyed or damaged by the Nazis.
    Seating with her family in one of train's dining carriages, Blanche Chaisty, 68, said she was proud to be on board knowing that both her mother and grandmother helped build it.
    "It's a bit surreal," Chaisty said. "I don't quite know how to feel... it's wonderful."
    After World War Two, the train was used for regular passenger services to and from the coast, often for holidaymakers. It was last taken out of service in 2008 and is now due to be revived for tourist trips on the heritage Watercress Line.
    Dalley said the locomotive and its history send a strong a message to future generations by showing how "everyone has to pull together in tough times".
    (production: Gerry Mey, Sarah Mills, Catarina Demony)
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