Return journey for funeral train

The van has been transported from California

A railway funeral van used to carry Sir Winston Churchill to his final resting place has returned to the UK.

The historic van was shipped to Southampton docks from Los Angeles, where it had formed part of a mock English railway station on a resort.

But it was donated it to the "British people" by its owners when it became surplus to requirements.

The van will be restored in Somerset and Swanage Railway Trust will provide a new home for it in Dorset.

Full restoration

Built in 1931, the Southern Railway parcels and luggage van has travelled about 8,000 miles (12,800 km) on a six-week journey via the Panama Canal.

Swanage Railway volunteers will have to raise about £20,000 for the van's full restoration.

The Churchill Project appeal to save the van was organised by Steve Doughty from Swanage Railway Trust, which runs the Swanage Railway.

Mr Doughty said: "We were determined to avoid any possibility of the historic van eventually being broken up far from home.

The van took the war leader's coffin from London Waterloo

"I am grateful to the City of Industry and the many members of the public who have chosen to support this project so far.

"The van is home and the project is on the home stretch; so now, to borrow some words from Sir Winston, we just have 'to finish the job'."

The Southern Railway van number S2464S van was painted in Pullman livery in 1962 and stored until Sir Winston's death in 1965.

It formed part of the train which carried the coffin on its final journey to Bladon, near Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, after his state funeral.

Later that year the van was saved from the scrap heap by Darius Johnson of City of Industry, Los Angeles.

The funeral train was hauled by the steam locomotive that bore his name - a Southern Railway streamlined Bulleid Pacific, now in the National Railway Museum, York.