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"Without wishing to be pedantic,
I could class Britannia as merely an enlarged Atlantic.
For something really tarific
See a Bulleid Pacific."HAV Bulleid
![]() photograph: Mike Morant collection
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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.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. The decision to go ahead was taken in 1955 and modifying of
both the MN and the WC/BBs proceeded. However to many, whilst this modifying
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 originally barred the modified
LPs from working to North Devon or over Meldon Viaduct, west of Okehampton. (In
July 1959 Meldon Viaduct had been strengthened and the modified locos were
allowed to work to Plymouth, but they were still barred from the North Cornwall
and North Devon lines. The first such working over Meldon Viaduct was on 14th
July when N°34062 headed the 8:41a.m. Exeter-Plymouth stopping train and
the 2:25p.m. return). The first loco to be modified was N°34005 Barnstaple in the summer of 1957 and the last N°34104 Bere Alston in May 1961. Modifying 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 modifieds 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. Modifying also increased the weight in full working order by almost 4 tons which prevented them working to Barnstaple, Bude, Ilfracombe or Padstow. Some modifieds also obtained new 5250 gallon capacity tenders which were built on the underframes of the badly corroded originals. eing relatively new locomotives these classes in their modified 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 modifieds are a popular class and again ten have either been preserved or are awaiting restoration: N°34010 Sidmouth, N°34016 Bodmin, N°34027 Taw Valley, N°34028 Eddystone, N°34039Boscastle, N°34046 Braunton, N°34053 Sir Keith Park, N°34058 Sir Frederick Pile, N°34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair and N°34101 Hartland. During the modifying, two major changes occured. First the initial non self balanced crank was recognised to be too weak (one major crank failure occured)
and was replaced by a much heavier self balanced crank and this upset the
initial balancing. Correspondingly balancing weight should have been
removed from the driving wheels. This seems not to have been possible, so
the only other option was adding balance weights opposite to the initial position. This should in part explain why the locomotives became heavier. How was it decided which engines were to be modified? The order of the work
has often seemed to be random, but it was based on when an engine was due a full General Overhaul. By the time the programme was authorised a number of the
earlier members of the class had already received their second GO, so
Nos34002/6/7 etc. weren't modified as they didn't then become due for a further GO until the modifying programme had ceased. Depending on their
allocation some locomotives had higher annual mileages so they would come in for
a General Overhaul more quickly than those where mileages were low. Nos34043/11/65 had all been "altered" to some extent in 1952 and were overhauled but not modified in 1957, although any other locomotive coming in was modified. Eastleigh could handle two at one time, with a two week overlap. N°34080 escaped at the end of that year as it arrived ten days before N°34001's modifying was completed. N°34066 came in in February 1958 after the Lewisham disaster but wasn't due a General and as there were two engines being worked on at that time it returned to work repaired but not modified, although its tender was cut-down, the first Original to be so altered after the three 1952 ones. Shortly after that N°34067 and N°34070 (the latter's tender receiving the left and right-facing later crests although it wasn't cut-down despite the fact that N°34067's was) escaped being denuded as the first five of the final series of MNs had taken up residence for modifying. Nos34110/063 appeared within a week of each other in June that year but the last MN was still in works and N°34028 was using the other slot. N°34045 had sported an unsuccessful spark arrestor since its General Overhaul a year earlier, (the last one to have a GO before modifying commenced), and was laid up for a month or so before getting an unscheduled General in July 1958 and being modified, taking eleven weeks instead of the normal six weeks. As a result N°34073 came in and was returned to service in original condition. N°34068 was the next escapee, in December 1958, as N°34029 had come in four days earlier and was butchered. N°34083 came in the day after N°34039, so was spared. N°34075 also came in just after another engine and wasn't altered. At the end of March 1959 N°34062 was the last of the first batch of 30 modifications, so all other engines coming in for General Overhauls for the rest of 1959 were merely overhauled, although most had their tenders cut down (except*). They were Nos34035 (which had its cowling modified), 34041/49 (also modified cowling)/51/54/66/69/72*/74*/76/78*/79/81/86. Eastleigh then spent the summer of 1959 rebuilding the last ten MNs There was no escaping the strippers in 1960 as all 24 engines in for General Overhauls that year were modified, probably because they'd upped the ante and could do four at once now, and the last six were the first of the 1961 General Overhauls. The first one after the programme was completed was N°34020, which entered Eastleigh Works on 7th April 1961, some three weeks after the last modified, N°34104. Another 16 had Generals that year but none was modified, and one (N°34084) was overhauled for the Western Region. Just five had General Overhauls in 1962 and that was it for the Originals. Eastleigh overhauled seven Modifieds in 1963/4, the other 53 never having a General Overhaul at all. |
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These two classes have a popular following and we are fortunate that ten have been preserved or are awaiting restoration in their modified condition (listed in their BR numbering): 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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This page was last updated 9 July 2020
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