Everything about Sr West Country Class totally explained
The
SR West Country and Battle of Britain Classes, also known as
Light Pacifics or
Spam Cans, are classes of
air-smoothed 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive designed for the
Southern Railway by
Oliver Bulleid. Incorporating a number of new developments in British steam locomotive technology, both classes were amongst the first British designs to utilise welding in the construction process, and to use steel
fireboxes, which meant that components could be more easily constructed during the wartime austerity and post-war economy.
They were designed to be lighter in weight than their sister locomotives, the
Merchant Navy Class, to permit use on a wider variety of routes. They were a true
mixed-traffic design, being equally adept at hauling
passenger and
freight trains, and were used on all types of services. A total of 110 locomotives were constructed between 1945 and 1950, named after
West Country resorts and
Royal Air Force (RAF) subjects from the
Battle of Britain, representing another publicity masterstroke for the Southern Railway, one of the
Big Four British railway companies formed after the grouping of 1923.
Due to problems with some of the more novel features in Bulleid's design, such as the
Bulleid chain-driven valve gear, sixty locomotives were rebuilt by
British Railways during the late 1950s. This produced a locomotive design highly similar to that of the rebuilt Merchant Navy Class. The classes operated until July 1967, when the last steam locomotives on the
Southern Region were withdrawn from service. Although most were subsequently scrapped, twenty locomotives avoided this fate and instead found new homes on
heritage railways in
Britain.
Background
The introduction of the
Merchant Navy Class was regarded as a success by the Southern Railway, and nothing like them had been seen before on Britain's railways in terms of design, boiler efficiency, and the ergonomics applied to the footplate to maintain ease of use. However, the Operations Department of the Southern Railway soon realised that the locomotives were too heavy for use on some of the less significant lines.
The locomotive also carried a similar 'air-smoothed' casing. This wasn't regarded as streamlining by Bulleid, a fact demonstrated by the extremely flat front end; The
tender could carry 4,500 gallons of water and featured
streamlining panels, or "raves", that gave the top of the tender a similar cross-sectional outline to the
carriages hauled by the locomotive. A shorter boiler required shorter
frames, resulting in a reduced-length locomotive and further weight-savings.
Construction history
The Southern Railway constructed seventy
Light Pacifics at
Brighton Works: the first, prototype West Country Class locomotive 21C101
Exeter, was completed in May 1945; the last was Battle of Britain Class number 21C170
Manston in November 1947. The Southern-built batches had a narrower footplate than those constructed later, due to the intention for the type to work the width-restricted
Hastings Line between
Tonbridge and
Hastings. In the event the type was never used on this duty.
The final forty engines were constructed after the
nationalisation of the railways in 1948. This meant that they never carried Southern Railway numbers. and the
tender, which had an increased water capacity of 5,500 gallons.
Naming the locomotives
The two classes are mechanically identical, the distinction between the West Country and Battle of Britain being purely concerned with the theme of the names given to the individual locomotives. As built by the Southern Railway, 48 of the class were named after places in the West Country served by its trains or close to its lines, and the rest took their names from RAF squadrons, airfields, commanders and aircraft that participated in the
Battle of Britain over
Kent. This represented a publicity success due to many of the locomotives being able to visit their namesake areas. The background of the nameplate was usually painted red, though sometimes examples could be found in black if the locomotive works undertaking overhaul of the engine couldn't locate the correct colour paint. The Battle of Britain Class nameplates incorporated the name of the locomotive, with the class name below, in a design that resembled the
wings of an
aircraft. This was painted
air force blue, though other colours were sometimes substituted for the same reasons as above. A crest of the aircraft, personality or squadron was placed below the nameplate, in the same position as the West Country Class equivalent. Incidentally, the nameplates were constructed from sheets of
gunmetal.
British Railways engines
The first locomotives constructed under the new regime were of the Battle of Britain Class, numbers 34071–34090, although naming policy reverted back to the West Country Class from 34091–34108. Thus
66 Squadron was the only BB Class member not to have a crest.
Rebuilding
Between 1957 and 1961, British Railways rebuilt sixty of the class to a more conventional design, adopting many features from the
BR 'Standard' locomotive classes that had been introduced. The streamlined casing was removed and replaced with conventional boiler cladding, and the chain-driven valve gear was replaced with modified
Walschaerts valve gear. The rebuilt versions were similar to the rebuilt Merchant Navy Class design of
R. G. Jarvis. As a result of the rebuilding and the implementation of
Walschaerts valve gear, the rebuilt examples were slightly heavier, and were prone to
hammerblow on the track, a complaint that wasn't evident with the original design.
The onset of the during the early 1960s meant that the remaining fifty locomotives were not rebuilt, and continued in as-built condition until eventual withdrawal from service. Many rebuilt locomotives were scrapped relatively soon after their rebuilding, an indication of the waste in resources made by British Railways, as some engines had only existed in this form for as little as three years, as in the case of 34109
Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory.
Operational details
The utilisation of welded steel construction and several innovations that hadn't previously been seen in British locomotive design meant that the classes followed the Merchant Navys in earning Bulleid the title 'Last Giant of Steam'. The constant concern for ease of maintenance and utility hadn't previously been seen on locomotives of older design, whilst their highly efficient boilers represented the ultimate in British steam technology, the hallmark of a successful locomotive design. Because of their utilitarian appearance, enhanced by the flat, boxy 'air-smoothed' casing, the class soon gained the nickname of their larger siblings, "Spam Cans", due to the resemblance to the distinctive
tin cans that "
SPAM" was sold in.
Originally, the West Country Class locomotives were intended to work the lines around
South West England in
Devon,
Dorset and parts of
Somerset, whilst the Battle of Britain Class were to work the lines of Kent,
Hampshire,
Sussex and
Surrey. In practice, this didn't occur and both classes were to be found all over the network. However, they were not without their problems, as so many innovations in one design meant that there was more to go awry. When the local fire brigade was called to put the fire out, the cold water used to douse the flames came into contact with the hot boiler; hence both casings and boiler plating suffered thermal shock and stress. Many photographs show an un-rebuilt
Light Pacific with 'cockled' (or warped) casings resulting from a fire in the lagging. There was much experimentation in order to resolve this problem, with varying degrees of success, and photographic evidence shows the many guises of this project. The problem was never fully resolved, though the rebuilts were provided with British Railways-style
smoke deflectors; the lack of casings on the rebuilds also helped reduce the problem.
An unusual but frequent sight on the 'Withered Arm' (the
Southern Region's railways west of
Exeter) was of a
Light Pacific hauling a local stopping service with a single carriage to destinations as diverse as
Padstow and
Wadebridge.
Livery and numbering
Southern Railway
Livery was Southern Railway
Malachite green with "Sunshine Yellow" horizontal lining. A circular cast brass plate with a red background was mounted on the smokebox door featuring the word "Southern" and the date of manufacture. Bulleid advocated a continental style of numbering, basing this upon his experiences at the French branch of
Westinghouse Electric before the
First World War, and his tenure in the rail operating department during that conflict. The Southern Railway number adapted the
UIC classification system where "2" and "1" refer to the number of un-powered leading and trailing axles respectively, and "C" refers to the number of driving axles – in this case three. However, since "21C" was the prefix already used by the Merchant Navy class, the suffix "1" was added; all these locomotives therefore carried numbers which started "21C1" followed by the individual two-digit identifier. The locomotives after their first
overhaul under new ownership were turned out in British Railways
Brunswick Green livery with orange and black lining, with the British Railways crest on the tender tank side. This was unlike the Merchant Navy Class, which was initially turned out in British Railways Experimental Express Passenger Blue livery. By this stage, the Southern Railway-built locomotives were renumbered and re-liveried under standard British Railways procedure within the 34xxx series, from 34001–34070.
Preserved Light Pacifics
Preserved locomotives are un-rebuilt, except where stated otherwise:
» For location details and current status of the preserved locomotives, see: List of SR West Country and Battle of Britain Class locomotives
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sr West Country Class'.
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