Rededication at Severn Valley Railway for engine named after war hero
A locomotive named after a hero of the Battle of Britain is to be rededicated at the Severn Valley Railway – more than 60 years after the original ceremony.
Locomotive 34053 was named Sir Keith Park after the New Zealand-born Air Chief Marshal who deployed Britain's squadrons of Hurricane and Spitfire fighters against the Luftwaffe in 1940.
Sir Keith named the engine himself on September 19, 1947, at Brighton Station.
Following years of service on the railways, and a 20-year spell on a scrap yard in South Wales, locomotive 34053 Sir Keith Park underwent extensive renovation by Southern Locomotives Ltd. It entered service at the Severn Valley Railway in 2012 and will be redidicated on August 31.
The ceremony will take place at 11.15am at Kidderminster railway station in front of three RAF veterans who fought in the Battle of Britain, as well as members of Sir Keith's family and Oliver Bullied, the grandson of the engine's designer.
The guest of honour will be The Right Honourable Sir Lockward Smith, New Zealand High Commissioner, who will unveil the nameplate.
A Guard of Honour will be mounted by the 156 (Kidderminster) Squadron ATC.
About 200 guests will then take a trip along the line in a train hauled by 34053 Sir Keith Park. A flypast by a Hurricane and a Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will take place at 2pm over Bridgnorth, where the RAF Association will also parade standards.
Nick Thompson, of Southern Locomotives, said: "The restoration of Sir Keith Park took a great deal of time, effort and money, and it is great to see it operating at the Severn Valley Railway, where it's be-come a popular member of their loco fleet.
"Part of the incentive to restore it was its historic association with Sir Keith Park and his crucial role in the Battle of Britain.
"We hope that it will serve to remind visitors to the railway of the debt owed to him by Britain."
