Eastleigh: The day Princess Anne came to put a grand old Lord of steam back on the rails

IN her heyday she was the boat train which carried the rich and famous from London to join the luxury transatlantic liners in Southampton.

This week the steam engine Lord Nelson received film star treatment as she took centre stage at the former Eastleigh Railway Works.

The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, was in town as star guest at a recommissioning ceremony for the locomotive which is set to make an emotional return to the mainline.

It was in the railway town that the engine started life as one of the elite class of 16 locomotives built between 1926 and 1929.

Since the locomotive, affectionately known as "Nellie", returned to its home town in 1997 dedicated members of the Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society have worked countless hours to get her back on track.

Yesterday their labours were rewarded when Princess Anne sliced through a cable to bring down a huge white sheet cover to reveal the locomotive restored to its former glory.

Earlier The Princess Royal met the Preservation Society's steam support crew and its chairman Councillor Godfrey Olson who explained that the Lord Nelson was part of the national collection administered by the National Railway Museum at York.

He said it had entrusted the society with the task of carrying out a complete overhaul. The huge restoration project had been led by Jesse Moody.

Councillor Olson, pictured, said: "This has been done by dedicated volunteers giving many thousands of hours of their free time over the past eight years. The result of their labour is here for you to see today."

Mr Olson hoped that space could be found in the Alstom works, which was now closed, to create a working heritage centre.

Princess Anne, relaxed in a brown tweed jacket and black trousers, climbed aboard the footplate of Number 850 where she spoke to former Royal train drivers, Ken Binsted, 67, and Rodney Tizzard, 69, both from Eastleigh. She sounded the whistle as the signal for the whole of Eastleigh to know that "Nellie" was back on track.