All three machines seen here required restorations that were described as 'Impossible' when they were begun. 71000 Duke of Gloucester had sat for over twenty years in Barry Scrapyard and had been robbed of one of her cylinders for display in the National Railway Museum. Through the dedication of a band of volunteers the 'Duke' is now better than at any time in its BR career.>All three machines seen here required restorations that were described as 'Impossible' when they were begun. 71000 Duke of Gloucester had sat for over twenty years in Barry Scrapyard and had been robbed of one of her cylinders for display in the National Railway Museum. Through the dedication of a band of volunteers the 'Duke' is now better than at any time in its BR career.
It was also a time when Britain's luxury liners were very much the Queens of the Atlantic with the Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary and Mauretania II maintaining a superb and highly profitable service to the United States, despite growing competition from United States Lines especially. To link with the Southampton docks, the Southern Region of British Railways ran special 'Boat Trains' from Waterloo with Battle of Britain class pacifics and the Lord Nelson class being the favoured motive power.
The twin engined aircraft is a Bristol Blenheim. The group concerned with this aircraft rebuilt another Blenheim in the 1980s as a long-nosed Mk.IV variant, the aircraft crashed and a second aircraft was restored to flying condition in the mid 1990s. This too suffered a major accident and the decision was made to rebuild it as an earlier Mk.I version, as seen here. The aircraft currently resides at the IWM Duxford.
The single-engined aircraft is a Spitfire Mk.I which had originally been shot down over the Dunkirk beaches in 1940. An extremely lengthy and costly restoration has resulted in one of the nicest looking Spitfires on the Airshow scene.
A Limited Edition print has also been produced in two Limited Edition sizes with 100 of each size available.
