Changes

|years1 = 19661965

|events4 = Moved to Swanage Railwayfrom the SVR

The '''34053 Sir Keith Park''' is a SR 'West CountryClass 4-6-2 ' and 'Battle of BritainPacific' classes were designed by Oliver (O.V.S.) Bulleid, the CME of the Southern Railway (SR). Lighter than their sister locomotives, and was one of the Merchant Navy class, they could be used on a wider variety of routes including Class rebuilt by British Railways in the south-west of England late 1950s with streamline casing removed and its chain valve gear replaced with the Kent coastWalschaerts type. They were a mixed-traffic design, being used for both passenger A description of the Class and freight trains, and were classified 7P6F by British Railwaysfeatures of the rebuilding programme can be found on the [[SR 34027 Taw Valley | 34027 Taw Valley]] page.

Originally ==34053 Sir Keith Park in service==34053 was built with innovative features including air-smoothed casings in 1946 at the SR’s Brighton Works and chainentered service at Salisbury MPD as SR no [[UIC classification | 21C153]]. It was named by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Park Air Vice-driven valve gear, many of the locomotives including 34053 were rebuilt by British Railways in the late 1950sMarshal Sir Keith Park] at Brighton station on 19 September 1947.

==34053 Sir Keith Park in service==34053 was built in 1946 at the SR’s Brighton Works and entered service as SR no [[UIC classification | 21C153]]. It was originally allocated to Salisbury MPD but also worked on extended loan from the Stewarts Lane depot, where it hauled prestige services such as the Golden Arrow on many occasions, and it was during that period it first carried its BR number 34053 in June 1949. It had brief spells at Nine Elms in 1950 and Exmouth Junction in 1951, either side of a trip to Eastleigh where it was noted ex works in dark green livery in January 1951. It returned to Salisbury the following June. In 1958 it was fitted with a larger water capacity LP Series 2 tender, then rebuilt in November of that year. In 1960 it was transferred to Bournemouth, where it often hauled the Pines Express on the Somerset & Dorset Railway. A further trip to Eastleigh followed in 1963. 34053 was withdrawn from service by BR in October 1966 1965 and towed to [[Barry Scrapyard | Woodham's scrapyard]] at Barry the following March. Some connecting rods in 34053's tender struck a bridge near Chandler's Ford and the convoy of locos were left at the east siding of Romsey station for several weeks.

In August 2017 the SVR announced it had mutually agreed with [[Southern Locomotives Limited|SLL]] that the option to renew would not be actioned at the end of 2017, with 34053 moving to the Swanage Railway for the rest of the locomotive's certificate.<ref>[https://www.svrlive.com/34053-sir-keith-park SVRLive 23 August 2017]</ref> SKP ran her last SVR services on 2 January before winter maintenance works and her move to Swanage on 10 January 2018.<ref>SVR News 200</ref> 34053 recorded a total of 41,405 miles in preservation on the SVR. The reported total may include mileage on hire to other railways while resident here.<ref>SVR News 210, SVR-based Steam Locomotive Mileage 2017-2019, Duncan Ballard.</ref>