The 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials

Soon after the railways were nationalised in 1948, the then recently formed British Railways Board (BRB) decided to carry out a review of the motive power which had been inherited from the ‘Big Four’ independent railway companies. It was quickly realised that the entire locomotive fleet was made up from a huge variety of different class types, great numbers of which were nearing retirement or in some cases, were already life-expired. From the outset the government-owned organisation had to reduce costs as quickly and as practical as possible. No mean undertaking with a railway almost bankrupted by war. However, efforts began in earnest almost immediately and during its first 12 months, the BRB had recruited the renowned locomotive engineer Robert A Riddles, previously of the LMS, to assume responsibility for the Mechanical & Electrical Engineering department. Riddles was given the task of developing a small range of new steam locomortive designs, the intention being that they replace the older pre-nationalisation locomotives.

Riddles’ settled for a plan of action which was to utilies the best pre-nationalisation designs and incorporate the finest qualities of each into his new designs, thus amalgamating the greatest 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 quantityof express type locomotives from each of the newly-formed Regions and utilising them on ‘foreign’ territory. For example, LMS engines 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 specifically given LMS lettering for the occasion. Similarly, ex-Southern Region types 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 put pen to paper and began to formulate the first of the then new ‘standardised’ steam locomotives. Officially, these comparisons were intended to establish the best aspects of the four varying approaches to 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 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, in particular 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 came forth from Crewe on 2nd January 1951 was a 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive looking bearing a significant resemblance to the Coronation class of locomotives 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. Following the test 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.

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