Bulleid Light Pacific
West Country / Battle of Britain Class
The first breed of Oliver Bulleid's revolutionary Pacific designs emerged on 18th February 1941: the Merchant Navy. Under normal circumstances, the procurement of what was fundamentally an express passenger locomotive would not have been permitted during the war years; the government would only allow engines of ''mixed traffic'' classification to be built. The latter were considered to be the most useful type of engine during the war effort, but Bulleid was prepared to present his case. He convinced the authorities that his new design was a perfectly capable of handling all traffics and subsequently, approval was given for the construction of no less than thirty examples. The Chief Mechanical Engineer had transferred to the Southern from the LNER in 1937, where he had been assistant to Sir Nigel Gresley during the birth of many of the East Coast's finest pacific engines. Experience gained from Gresley's ingenuity in locomotive engineering would be noticeable in Bulleid's later work with the Southern.
The Merchant Navies became the Southern's most powerful locomotives at the time, but they had a severe limiting factor to their usage: weight. This usually restricted the class to the main lines, but this predicament was to be alleviated on the procurement of a new fleet of engines to complement the fleet. Whilst the Merchant Navy construction project was still in full swing, the development of another new locomotive class began, once again under the ''mixed traffic'' label for government purposes. These engines were to emerge as slightly smaller and considerably lighter versions of Bulleid's first pacific design, giving them near total route availability. However, as many features of the more powerful engine were retained where possible to successfully combine power with low weight, making the new breed as suitable for branch line work as for main line express duties. The first ''Light Pacific'' emerged in May 1945 and was pressed into service the following month. An initial order for seventy of the type was placed in that year, and early examples were deployed on the South Eastern Division, notably allocated to Ramsgate and Dover sheds, where they replaced older traction of SE&CR heritage which had served so well during the war years. The the new locomotives appeared revolutionary for the times, with their ''air-smoothed'' casing creating a square outer shell, earning them the nickname ''Spam Can''. Their unusualness was somewhat augmented by the oval firebox door (interestingly, unorthodox-shaped fireboxes could also be found incorporated in the LNER streamline Pacifics produced by Gresley), and their strikingly continental 'box-pox' wheels. The latter were manufactured from American cast steel, which reduced potential weight and had greater resistance to distortion over the conventional spoke wheels.
Construction spilled over into nationalisation, an additional forty locomotives having been ordered in the meantime, the last coming into service in 1951. Those introduced from 1948 onwards incorporated larger tenders, but all examples retained the Bulleid chain-driven valve gear, steel welded boiler and oil bath inside motion gear of their Merchant Navy counterparts. The first seventy were built with narrow cabs - as previously noted, the first Light Pacifics were bound for the South Eastern Division, where the loading gauge restrictions were generally more severe than those on South Western Division. Naturally, the second order Light Pacifics were built with a wider cab. On emergence in 1945, the first sixty-six locomotive received names of places in the west country (hence ''West Country'' Class). The four remaining engines of the first batch, and the forty subsequent engines were named after famous World War II aircraft, airfields and people, (hence ''Battle of Britain'' Class). Although being designated as separate classes in terms of the names they received, the two types were identical in mechanical constitution and appearance; only their nameplates were of alternate shapes.
South Western Division
West Country No. 34038 ''Lynton'' is seen storming through Clapham Junction, Waterloo-bound in the mid
1960s. It is seen with the 1952 BR-modified flangeless tender, altered to allow easier watering of the tank
and improved visibility. This locomotive did not quite make it to the end of Southern steam on the South
Western Division, being withdrawn half way through 1966. David Glasspool Collection
By 1956 the Light Pacifics had been de-rated from a boiler pressure of 280lb to 250lb per square inch, extending
boiler life. By 1961, sixty Light Pacifics had been rebuilt into what looked like totally different engines, but unique
features such as the oval smoke box door and box pox wheels were retained. Interestingly, the rebuilt locomotives
weighed more than un-rebuilt examples: a new weight of 90 tons 50.80 kilograms as opposed to the original 86 tons.
An interesting line of ventilated vans are evident in this scene of No. 34044 ''Woolacombe'' arriving at Oxford with a
cross country service on 3rd September 1963. David Glasspool Collection
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