A brief Bulleid Pacific appreciation


	Original unmodified ‘West Country’ pacific as built in 1945. (left)


	This part of the Hurstmereclose site has been set aside for a brief appreciation of the Southern Railways ‘Bulleid Pacifics’. Designed by O.V.S. Bulleid to incorporate a number of innovative features, the engines first appeared as the streamlined ‘Merchant Navy’ class in March 1941. Whilst Bulleid had carefully studied a number of other types of locomotive before coming up with the specification for his new engines, he was a little too eager to see his designs built to ask for the opinions of others. Thus it was, that the ‘Pacifics’ incorporated some excellent features, along with others that caused the maintenance staff a great deal of problems, and the engines themselves, a less than enviable record of reliability. Because of this, a modification programme was drawn up by British Railways to rebuild the loco’s between 1955 and 1961. In the end, all of the ‘Merchant Navy’ class were modified, though 50 of the ‘West Country’ and ‘Battle of Britain’ classes were not.(due to the phasing out of steam traction).


	Some of the more noteable features of the original Bulleid pacifics were as follows:

Air smoothed casing. (to merge with Bulleid’s own flush sided carriages.)

Lemaitre blastpipe chimney of large diameter.

Electric welding principles used to cut down on weight - as used on firebox.

Very large fire grate area of 48sq.ft. (with rocking grates)

Thermic syphons in the firebox to increase available heating surfaces.

Chain driven valve gear between the frames in an enclosed oil bath. (see right)

Distinctive BFB wheels (akin to US ‘Boxpok’) were both stronger and lighter.

Steam reversing gear.

All-electric lighting driven from a small steam generator under the cab.

Steam operated firedoors.



		In the above picture, the two chains can be seen to the right of the connecting rod in the centre. (identified A and B)



		Note that Bulleid decided to use the ‘continental’ method of numbering his engines. The ‘2’ referring to the the two axles in the leading bogie, the ‘1’ for the axles in the pony truck, and the ‘C’ (meaning 3) for the coupled axles. After nationalisation this scheme was abandoned.


		No. 21C1 ‘Channel Packet’ (left) in ex-works condition. Picture taken in March 1941. This was the original design of ‘air smoothed casing’ that was to change several times to the familiar shape we can still see today on preserved unrebuilt locomotives. The 1947 picture below shows this on locomotive 21C167 ‘Tangmere’.


	‘West Country’ class No. 34091 Weymouth seen (right) prepared for hauling the ‘Golden Arrow’ train in 1957.


	The modified Merchant Navy locomotives (left above and left below and below) were rebuilt between 1956 and 1959 to retain all the original loco’s best features and to discard all those which had proved to be troublesome.



		21C10 / BR 35010 rebuilt Merchant Navy ‘Blue Star’



				21C18 / BR 35018 rebuilt Merchant Navy ‘British India Line’


			BR 34087 Battle of Britian class ‘145 Squadron’ seen here ex. works in 1960

MERCHANT NAVY CLASS	WEST COUNTRY / BATTLE OF BRITAIN CLASS
Loco weight (rebuilt) 97tons 18cwt (original) 94tons 15cwt	Loco weight (rebuilt) 90tons 1cwt (original) 86tons 0cwt
Boiler pressure originally 280psi later 250 psi	Boiler pressure originally 280psi later 250psi
Cyls (3) 18” x 24”	Cyls (3) 16 3/8” x 24”
Driving wheels 6’ 2”	Driving wheels 6’ 2”
T.E. 33,495 lb.	T.E 27,715 lb.



	In the last years of British Rail steam, most of the class were seen in a run-down condition with their nameplates removed, as shown here with 35050 ‘Elder Dempster Lines’ in 1967.


	A total of eleven ‘Merchant Navy’ and twenty ‘West Country’ / ‘Battle of Britain’ class locomotives have survived into preservation; only three being purchased from British Railways rather than Woodham Brothers at Barry! (No. 35028 ‘Clan Line’, 34023 / 21C123 ‘Blackmore Vale’ and 34051 ‘Winston Churchill’)


	The following notes will be updated when information becomes available. Thank you to those who help me keep it up-to-date.

	Last updated 18 May 02 courtesy of John Grundy Webmaster and Director of Southern Locomotives Ltd

35005	Canadian Pacific	MN	Mid Hants Railway
35006	Peninsular and Oriental S.N. Co.	MN	Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway
35009	Shaw Savill	MN
35010	Blue Star	MN
35011	General Steam Navigation	MN
35018	British India Line	MN	Mid Hants Railway
35022	Holland-America Line	MN	Sellindge
35025	Brocklebank Line	MN	Great Central Railway Leicestershire
35027	Port Line	MN	Swanage Railway
35028	Clan Line	MN	Owned by MNLPS. Ashford and other locations from time to time.
35029	Ellerman Lines	MN	Sectioned exhibit at York Railway Museum

34007	Wadebridge	WC	Bodmin & Wenford Railway
34010	Sidmouth	WC	Sellindge
34016	Bodmin	WC	Mid Hants Railway
32023	Blackmore Vale	WC	Bluebell Railway
34027	Taw Valley	WC	Severn Valley Railway
34028	Eddystone	WC	Herston Works / Swanage Railway
34039	Boscastle	WC	Great Central Railway Leicestershire
34046	Braunton	WC	West Somerset Railway
34051	Winston Churchill	BB	National Railway Museum York
34053	Sir Keith Park	BB	Sellindge
34058	Sir Frederick Pile	BB	Avon Railway, Bitton
34059	Sir Archibald Sinclair	BB	Bluebell Railway
34067	Tangmere	BB	Old Oak Common
34070	Manston	BB	Sellindge
34072	257 Squadron	BB	Swanage Railway
34073	249 Squadron	BB	Mid Hants Railway
34081	92 Squadron	BB	Nene Valley Railway
34092	City of Wells	WC	Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
34101	Hartland	WC	North Yorkshire Moors Railway
34105	Swanage	WC	Mid Hants Railway


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