The Locomotive Exchange Trials of 1948
Soon after the railways were nationalised in 1948, the then recently formed British Railways Board (BRB) decided to carry out a review of the locomotive stock which had been inherited from the ‘Big Four’ independent railway companies. What soon became clear was that the whole stable of steam locomotives made up from hundreds of different class types, large numbers of which were getting close to retirement or in some cases, were already life-expired. From the outset the government-owned organisation needed to reduce costs as soon and as practical as possible. Not an easy task with a war-battered railway. However, efforts began in earnest almost immediately and during its first year, the BRB had enlisted the services of the renowned locomotive engineer Robert A Riddles, formerly of the LMS, to take responsibility for the Mechanical & Electrical Engineering department. Riddles first task was developing a small range of new steam locomortive designs, the intention being that they replace the older pre-nationalisation locomotives.
Riddles’ opted for a plan of action which was to utilies the best pre-nationalisation designs and incorporate the finest qualities of each into his standardised locomotives, thus procuring the best of the engineering feats from all of the former railway companies. His first move towards producing new designs were the ‘Locomotive Exchange Trials’. Riddles initiated his proceedings by choosing a number of express type locomotives from each of the newly-formed Regions and using them on ‘foreign’ territory. As an example, LMS locomotives were run over the Southern Region where there were no water troughs. To compensate for this they were paired with four-axled ex-War Department tenders with larger water tanks. These were given LMS lettering especially for the occasion. In a similar way, ex-Southern Region locomotives used elsewhere were paired 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 comparisons were intended to establish the best qualities of the four different schools of thought of locomotive design in order to incorporate them in the new BR standard designs. However, the testing lacked any real scientific value, and taking his background into account and other political influences, it meant that LMS practice was largely followed by the new standard designs regardless, and it is not really surprising that nearly all of Riddles’ final products would bear much resemblance to the designs pioneered by the LMS, particularly those locomotives which were designes of Stanier and Ivatt.
However, the trials were useful publicity for BR to show the unity of the new British Railways. By 1950 the first express passenger locomotive design had been finalised at Derby and later that same year, the British Transport Commission placed an order with Crewe Works for the construction of twenty-four of the type. What emerged from Crewe on 2nd January 1951 was a 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive looking bearing a significant resemblance to the Coronation class of engines designed by William Stanier, also previously with the LMS. The imposing engine, finished in a plain black scheme with no lining, was scheduled for a test run between its birthplace 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 type, 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 produced 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.
