English: P.S Waverley arriving at Southwold Pier The P.S Waverley is visiting Southwold Pier for a return trip to London. Southwold Pier was severely damaged in 1934 and the T shaped washed away. After rebuilding between 1999 and 2002 the pier could once again accommodate steam ships.

The original P.S Waverley of 1899 vintage was sunk during the Dunkirk Evacuations (of which my grand-dad was part of)in 1940. So a replacement was ordered after the war. P.S Waverley is now the last London and North Eastern Railway Clyde steamer left in operation. She was built in 1946 at A & J Inglis, Glasgow, and entered service in June 1947. Her Career was for sailing on their (LNER) Firth of Clyde steamer route from Craigendoran Pier, near Helensburgh, up Loch Long to Arrochar, and in her first year in service, she wore that company's red, white and black funnel colours. In 1948 nationalisation of Britain's railway companies brought the steamers under the control of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company (CSP). The funnels were repainted yellow with a black top. In 1965 a Scottish red lion rampant was fixed to each side of both funnels, and her hull was painted monastral blue until 1970.

However holiday habbits changed throughout the 1950s and 60s with cheap holidays abroad becoming available. This resulted in traffic levels dropping. In 1973 Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd (who now owned her) sold P.S Waverley to the paddle steamer preservation society for £1. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection, between 2000 and 2003 the ship underwent a substantial rebuild. The Heritage Lottery Fund put a massive £6 million into the project. This major exercise took place in two stages at the shipyard of George Prior at Great Yarmouth and has succeeded in returning the ship to her original 1946 condition.

Now she sails with sister ship Balmoral around the coast from Scotland to Great Yarmouth.

She is powered by a tripple expansion, three crank diagonal steam engine, (made by Rankin & Blackmore, Eagle Foundry, Greenock, Scotland). This chucks out at 2,100 horse power and achieved a trial speed of 18.37 knots at 57.8 revolutions per minute.

Sorry about the picture quality, my camera broke so a cheap disposable was sought then the results scanned in.