Bulleid MN "Merchant Navy" Class 4-6-2
| It was originally intended to name this class after Allied victories. 21C1 had been lined up for the name The Plate but in 1941 there had been few victories to commemorate. Consideration was then given to naming them after Commonwealth capitals but the Chairman of the Union Castle Line then suggested naming them after shipping companies which had called at Southampton Docks in peacetime. |
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35027 Port Line at Victoria. She is in the experimental blue livery
applied to all bar three of the Merchant Navy class locos. Note the difference
in appearance when compared with 21C1 and 21C3 on the previous page. Many modifications to the
"air-smoothed" casing were tried before this general arrangement was
settled on, mainly in an effort to avoid smoke drifting down and obscuring the
driver's view! She now has the "Vee" shaped cab that, with its
angled front spectacle plates, increased vision and reduced glare.
Port Line is carrying the prestigious "Golden Arrow" regalia of headboard, arrows and British and French flags. photograph: Roy Vandersteen collection |
| 35004 Cunard White Star enters Waterloo heading plum
and spilt milk liveried stock.
photograph by Mike Morant |
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35015 Rotterdam Lloyd hauling the Bournemouth Belle. Location is
thought to be near Surbiton. This headboard is of the Southern Railway design.
A few years earlier, on 20th June 1947, 21C15 had the distiction of hauling the inaugral "Devon Belle" from Waterloo to Wilton. photograph: Mike Morant collection |
| 35029 Ellerman Lines departing from Waterloo with The
Royal Wessex during 1956. Rebuilt in September 1959 and withdrawn in 1966, the
loco was rescued from Barry Island in 1974, only to sufferer the ignominy of
being sectioned and put on display at the National Railway Museum, York, to
show how a steam engine works. See photo on later page. The headboard on this
train is of the newer BR(S) design.
photograph by Mike Morant |
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This page was last updated 18 May 2004
