Rebuilt Bulleid WC/BB 'West Country' and
'Battle of Britain' class 4-6-2
| "Without wishing to be pedantic, I could class Britannia as merely an enlarged Atlantic. For something really tarific See a Bulleid Pacific." | |
| HAV Bulleid |
| As originally built the Merchant Navy
class and the Light Pacifics were a roaring
success, particularly so in the 1948 locomotive trials when they showed a clean
pair of heels (especially the Light Pacifics) to all opposition. It is true to
say that the other regions called "foul" with some (minor)
justification as, in the main, the trials were comparing economy and
performance. The Southern engines could not compete on economy so their drivers
were instructed to "go for it", and this they certainly did! Greeted
with rapture on their introduction to traffic, by 1947 a couple of clouds had
arrived on the horizon. Firstly, the locos were costing a lot in coal, water
and oil and secondly maintenance, originally anticipated to be less than on
traditional engines, was in reality rather more. These were not a problem for
the drivers, of course, who were busy proving that the Southern had the best
time-keeping of all the railways. The arrival of the Britannia Class
7MT Pacifics in 1951 only served to enhance the reputation of the Bulleids,
which gave rise to the little ditty reproduced above! However, in 1952 the
maintenance problems were growing. Bulleid's departure for Ireland had led to
no effort being made to cure leakages from the oil baths, which were growing
worse and, coupled with a general lowering of maintenance standards in order
to cut costs, sloppy fault identifying and delayed attention to them, was
causing serious and expensive damage. Three options were clear - the Railway
could: 1. Do nothing. 2. Try to fix the problems without major modifications. 3. Replace troublesome parts by standard parts. The task was given to Jarvis of the CM&EE Department at Brighton and he, understandably, opted for number three. By the end of 1954 he had finished the designs and drawings, which were put forward in January 1955, proposing to modify all 140 Pacifics over a six year period, for a cost of £760,000, which, it was estimated, would save an overall £2,051,400 by the locomotives' estimated scrapping date of 1987. |
A not-so-common shot, 34047 Callington caught exactly side-on. The lack of nameplates says it is at the end of her career! photograph: Mike Morant collection |
| The decision to go ahead was taken in 1955 and rebuilding of
both the MN and the WC/BBs proceeded. However to many, whilst this rebuilding
corrected the erratic running, it also reduced the "sparkling"
performance (at least when working well) of the locos. One big disadvantage was
the necessity to add balance weights to the Bulleid-Firth-Brown wheels, thus
removing one of their better characteristics - the total absence of any hammer
blow. Another problem was increased weight which barred the rebuilt LPs from
working over Meldon Viaduct, west of Okehampton. (For information and pictures of the Light Pacifics in their original form please follow this link to the SEmG Light Pacific picture pages.) However, unlike the MN class, not all were rebuilt since the financial justification for converting a relatively new locomotive class was weakened with the decision to phase out steam traction far faster than originally proposed. In all 60 out of 110 were rebuilt with the WC variants being rebuilt in greater proportion than the BB ones - 43 out of 66 WC locos compared with 17 out of 44 BB. As with the engines in their original form the only differences between the rebuilt WCs and BBs were the nameplates and scrolls/plaques. |
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34021 Dartmoor was rebuilt during November and December
1957. Originally 21C121, she was renumbered to s21C121 in March 1948, then to 34021 in July 1948 but still carried the number s21C121 on her front. She was repainted in BR livery in May 1950. photograph by Ray Soper |
| 34008 Padstow arriving at East Croydon in charge of
the 6:10pm from Victoria
photograph by Keith Harwood |
 |
| The 6.10 from Victoria was the heaviest commuter train
on the Oxted line. It was described as "infamous" or something
similar by R H N Hardy when writing of his experiences as shedmaster at
Stewarts Lane (and elsewhere), because it was such a heavy train and tightly
timed over a difficult route (the Oxted line is uphill most of the way from
South Croydon to beyond Woldingham). It ran from Victoria to Brighton via Oxted
and Eridge and conveyed a Tunbridge Wells portion that was detached at Oxted.
Running fast from East Croydon to Oxted, it was invariably worked by a Brighton
pacific that came up on a balancing working earlier in the day. If anything
other than a pacific was rostered it used to run very late!
Keith Harwood |
| The first loco to be rebuilt was 34005 Barnstaple in the summer of 1957 and the last 34104 Bere Alston in May 1961. Rebuilding followed a similar programme to that employed on the MN class but all narrow cab locomotives had their cabs enlarged to 9 ft. The appearance of the rebuilds resembled their contemporary BR standard design Pacifics but still retained many of Bulleid's features, the most obvious being the BFB wheels, the smokebox door and the cabs. Rebuilding also increased the weight in full working order by almost 4 tons which prevented them working to Barnstaple, Bude, Ilfracombe or Padstow. Some rebuilds also obtained new 5250 gallon capacity tenders which were built on the underframes of the badly corroded originals. |
| Being relatively new locomotives these classes in their rebuilt form lasted working front-line services until the end of steam. The first withdrawal was in 1964 and the final members of the class lasted until the end of Southern steam in 1967. As with the locomotives in their original form the rebuilds are a popular class and again ten have either been preserved or are awaiting restoration: 34010 Sidmouth, 34016 Bodmin, 34027 Taw Valley, 34028 Eddystone, 34039 Boscastle, 34046 Braunton, 34053 Sir Keith Park, 34058 Sir Frederick Pile, 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair and 34101 Hartland. |
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The LPs and MNs were renowned for slipping when in the hands
of an inexperienced or careless driver, or when making a difficult start such
as on a grade with a sharp curvature. Here 34037 Clovelly can be seen
slipping badly when re-starting after coaling at Nine Elms. Slipping can be
very dangerous if not brought quickly under control, both to the crew and the
locomotive. After being rebuilt engines weren't quite so prone to slipping as
when in the original condition as they were not so "free and easy" on
starting.
photograph by Mike Morant |
All photographs are copyright
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Original LPs |
Preserved Rebuilt LPs |
Tenders |
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Data |
About those fires...
This page was last updated 23 June 2003
