NEWS FEED
The steam locomotive made famous in the landmark 1930s documentary film ‘Night Mail’ visited Corfe Castle and Swanage on 14 July.
It was the first time that a 1920s ‘Royal Scot’ class express steam locomotive had run on the award-winning Swanage Railway.
Built for the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1927, No. 46115 ‘Scots Guardsman’ starred in the classic 1930s General Post Office (GPO) railway documentary film ‘Night Mail’.
The locomotive was at the head of a 10-carriage ‘Swanage Belle’ from London’s Victoria station, the first main line steam-hauled excursion train to use the fully commissioned £500,000 Norden Gates level crossing west of Norden station.
Swanage Railway General Manager Matt Green explained: “A commercial, aesthetic and nostalgic success, ‘Night Mail’ was made by the General Post Office (GPO) film unit and highly praised by the film critics of the time.
“Widely considered a masterpiece of the British documentary film movement of the 1930s and the 1940s, the documentary told the story of a London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) mail train running from London to Scotland.
“Starring Royal Scot locomotive No. 6115 ‘Scots Guardsman’, the film became a classic of its kind and has been frequently imitated in modern short films and advertisements,” explained Mr Green.
Designed by Sir Henry Fowler and built by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow during 1927, No. 6115 – as it was then numbered – was named ‘Scots Guardsman’ the following year in honour of the Scots Guards army regiment.
Renumbered by British Railways as No. 46115 in 1948, ‘Scots Guardsman’ was withdrawn by British Rail in 1965. Seventy of the Royal Scot locomotives were originally built between 1927 and 1930.
