What we do
The Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society (MNLPS / the Society) was formed at the end of 1965 with the dual aims of saving one of the Merchant Navy Class locomotives of British Railways’ Southern Region and maintaining it in running order. The Merchant Navy Class were originally ‘air-smoothed’ 4-6-2 Pacific locomotives built for the Southern Railway of the United Kingdom to a design by the Company’s Chief Mechanical Engineer, Oliver Bulleid CB. The ‘Pacific’ type wheel arrangement was chosen in preference to several others proposed by Bulleid. The first 20 members of the class were constructed during the Second World War and the remaining 10 in 1948/49 under the aegis of the then newly nationalised ‘British Railways’. It was during 1965 that the Merchant Navy Locomotive Society (MNLPS) was formed and contacted British Railways asking for a price for a withdrawn engine. Following an appeal in the national railway press a fund of £3,850 was raised to purchase a representative locomotive from the class which was purchased in July 1967 for the sum of £2,200, about £50,000 at 2015 values. No.35028 Clan Line was selected and was purchased shortly after the end of steam on the Southern Region in July 1967 becoming the property of the MNLPS when it was delivered into the hands of the Society on the 13th August that year. The object and principal activity of the MNLPS is to preserve and maintain Clan Line in operational condition and to encourage and promote public interest and learning in the preservation of steam and other railway locomotives and rolling stock, railway machinery and equipment of historical interest and in railways generally together with education & learning and both are in keeping with the Society’s charitable status.