The Locomotive Exchange Trials of 1948
Soon after the railways were nationalised in 1948, the then recently formed British Railways Board (BRB) undertook a review of the motive power it had just inherited from the ‘Big Four’ independent railway companies. It was quickly realised that the whole stable of steam locomotives constituted of hundreds of different class types, many of which were getting close to retirement or in some cases, were already life-expired. From the outset the government-owned organisation had to cut costs as quickly and as practical as possible. No mean undertaking with a war-battered railway. However, efforts began in earnest almost immediately and in its first year, the BRB had enlisted the services of the renowned locomotive engineer Robert A Riddles, previously of the LMS, to assume responsibility for the Mechanical & Electrical Engineering department. Riddles first task was developing a new small range of new steam locomotive designs, which would eventually replace the older pre-nationalised classes.
Riddles’ opted for a plan of action which was to use the best pre-nationalisation designs and incorporate the best qualities of each into his new designs, thus procuring the greatest engineering feats from all of the former railway companies. The first step towards creating the new designs were the ‘Locomotive Exchange Trials’. Riddles initiated his proceedings by choosing a quantityof express type locomotives from each of the newly-formed Regions and employing them on ‘foreign’ territory. For example, LMS locomotives operated over the Southern Region where there were no water troughs. These were thus paired with four-axled ex-War Department tenders with larger water tanks. These were specifically given LMS lettering for the occasion. Similarly, ex-Southern Region locomotives used elsewhere were married together with ex-LMS tenders with water scoops. This gave the design team some important information on how suitable certain locomotive classes were to certain stretches of line.
Having completed the Locomotive Exchange Trials, Riddles’ Chief Draftsmen went back to the drawing board and began to shape the first of the then new ‘standardised’ steam locomotives. Officially, these trials were to identify the best aspects of the four varying schools of thought of locomotive design in order to incorporate them in the new BR standard designs. However, the methods used for testing lacked any real scientific value, and taking his background into consideration and other political influences, it was almost predictable that LMS practice was largely followed by the new standard designs regardless, and it is not really surprising that virtually all of Riddles’ final products would closely resemble the designs pioneered by the LMS, in particular those locomotives which were designes of Stanier and Ivatt.
However, the trials served as a useful publicity stunt for BR to show the unity of the new British Railways. By 1950 the first of the new express locomotive designs had been finalised at Derby and later that same year, the British Transport Commission placed an order with Crewe Works for the building of twenty-four of the type. What emerged from Crewe on 2nd January 1951 was a 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive looking conspicuously like the Coronation class of locomotives designed by William Stanier, also formerly of the LMS. The imposing engine, finished in a plain black scheme with no lining, was scheduled for a test run between Crewe and Carlisle on 11th January 1951, a dynamometer carriage being one of the consists of the train it was to haul. After the run, which proved to be a promising start for the class, the locomotive, numbered 70000, was repainted into the much more familiar lined BR Brunswick Green and delivered to Marylebone station on the last but one day of January to be named. No. 70000 was appropriately called ‘Britannia’, after the female personification of the British Empire, and it marked a very promising step forward for BR.
To mark the Sixtieth Anniversary of the 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials, in 2008 Hornby Railways released a Limited Edition Model of a 4-6-2 West Country Class Locomotive ‘Bude’ No 34006. This model, represents the classic pairing of a Southern Region Bulleid Pacific with a Stanier Tender. For the collectors out there, the Hornby R2685 West Country Class ‘Bude’ with Stanier Tender was only produced in a limited run of 2008 and each of the model trains came with a numbered Certificate of Authentication.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 4:11 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.