World War II stopped streamlining on many forms of transport, but of course aeroplanes!!
On the railways it has always remained doubtful that streamling on steam locomotives had any beneficial effect on performance, and thus costs, but it was certainly a great PR exercise for the two main Big Four railway rivals.
However, as the LNER and LMS were dismantling the streamlined casings on their loco's due to the need to save on maintenance costs, and help counteract a sudden shortage of labour, which were heightened by so much panelling in the way of parts requiring servicing, my hero, the Chief Mechanical
Technician*** of the Southern Railway was about to launch his version of streamlining!
That great man was Oliver V.Bulleid.
In February 1941 he managed to get approval to use vital war steel for a new revolutionary class of locomotive. It was the
Merchant Navy Class, Pacific locomotive, of which 30 would eventually be built, including an initial batch of 10 in March 1938, which were actually built during 1941/2 at Eastleigh.
They featured Bulleid Firth-Brown wheels (No spokes, but holes!), and an infamous chain-driven three row crankshaft operating valve gears for each cylinder, in a 40 gallon oil bath that also enclosed the sets of motion between the frames, that regularly caught fire when becoming too hot!! They also had clasp-type brakes, welded steel firbox with thermic syphons, and a boiler pressure of 280lb psi. The whole boiler was clad in streamlined casing right down to the frames.
The first out of the shops in February 1941 was
Channel Packet No. 21C1, later BR No. 35001:
This is one of her sisters, No 21C4 (later BR 35004)
Cunard White Star pulling an Express out of Waterloo:
If you are wondering about Bulleid's unique locomotive numbering system it was simple but clever.
A Pacific class loco has a wheel arrangement of 4-6-2. So Bullied numbered his loco's of the Pacific type 21C; 2 axles on the front bogie, 1 axle on the pony truck (under the footplate) and C for the three main driving axles (a loco with just two would be classed as "B", or one with 5 would be "E"). Then comes the Southern Railway number of the locomotive, in
Channel Packets case, "1" or for
Cunard White Star, "4".
These wonderful engines, along with
most of his later
West Country / Battle of Britain class locomotives, which looked almost the same but were lighter, were rebuilt by BR from 1958, the first being BR. No. 35018
British India Line, which I had the pleasure helping to start restoration on in the late 1970s.
This is 35005 (previous SR 21C5)
Canadian Pacific on the Mid-Hants Railway in rebuilt form:
*** I keep typing "Technician", but that word "Technician" keeps on appearing!!
What the ............!!!
EN-GIN-EER!!!!! Hurrah!!! That bloody word filter!!!
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