The
Southern Railway was the smallest of the railway companies which were brought
together in 1948 to form British Railways. It was unique in one other way.
Its principal revenue came from people, not freight, and most of its tracks carried
the least willing of customers, commuters. As a result, it pursued a
policy of making suburban trains as efficient as possible, and this end its
major engineering was aimed at electrification. Steam locomotives were
regarded as a stopgap until this could be extended to the main lines as well.
Nevertheless, its locomotive designers produced many notable types of steam
engine, including the well-known King Arthur class, the names being a master
stroke of the Southern's publicity department.
One of the strangest parts of the British Railways Empire was the self-contained
system on the Isle of Wight. When the Southern Railway was formed in 1923, it
inherited three small separate companies on the island. All had pursued
independent courses, but it standardized on small tank engines of similar design.
By the time the Southern took over, they were nearly all in urgent need of
replacement, so a number of engines from the largest constituent of the railway,
the London and Southwestern Railway, were transferred to the island. These class O2
engines were small tank engines, in other words, carrying all their fuel supplies
on the locomotive, which had been built in the 1890s for London commuter traffic,
but became redundant there due to electrification. From 1923 to 1966, these
little engines were the mainstay of the island lines, and nationalization had
little impact other than a change of livery. This engine, number 24 Calborne, is
the only survivor of 60 engines, 23 of which worked on the island. The only
other type of engine which saw service in any quantity on the island was the
Stroudly Terrier. Presumably these little engines got their nickname because they
had a loud bark, were small, and seemed to scurry everywhere. This scene is at a
new station created in 1991, Smallbrook Junction.
A small part of the old island railway network survives, as the Isle of Wight
steam railway based at Hayden Street. Here we see a terrier which had an
interesting history. It was built by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway
in 1877, sold to the London and Southwestern in 1903 for use of lime
regis in Dorset, and resold to the island's freshwater and Yarmouth
railway in 1913. It passed to the southern railway and became W2 and later
W8 in the special number series reserved for these engines. It returned to the
mainland in 1949 and was sold to the Haling Island Preservation Society in
1963. Eventually it returned to the island for restoration to working order.
Freshwater's career on the lime regis branch was relived in 1953 when 32662,
another member of the class, was used with the terrier successor on the lime
regis branch, the London and Southwestern railway Adams radial tank. Three of these
locomotives were retained to work this branch, which was built to a very light
specification. These engines have been the predecessors to the O2 tanks on
London suburban services in the 1880s, but had become obsolete before the First
World War. All but three were scrapped in the 1920s, the peculiarities of the lime
regis branch ensuring that they survived until the 1960s. This meant that number
30583 reached preservation on the Bluewell Railway in its original
southwestern condition as number 488.
Another oddity to survive to the preservation era was the BT well tank. Two
out of three which worked informally for the early 1960s have been retained. This one
worked a while in the 1960s and 70s at the Buckingham railway centre at Quainton
Road. The engines were an even earlier suburban design, all of which were
scrapped in the last century. They owed their survival to another likely-laid
branch line near Bodmin and Cornwall. This was part of the historic Bodmin and
Wadebridge railway, one of the earliest in the country, which became part of a
battle between the London and Southwestern and Great Western railways
for the domination of the Duchy. All three engines were withdrawn by British
Railways in 1962, this engine being retained by the National Railway Museum
in view of its historic importance. It was one of the few early Victorian designs
to survive into BR service, although it had long ago ceased to look as it had
when built, having been completely rebuilt three times in its lifetime. The
Southwestern had a number of small tank engines. These were designed by William
Adams and designated as Class B4 for use in Southampton docks to survive, number
96 showing how they originally looked with cutaway cabs on the Bluebell
railway. It bears the name Normandy, all these engines bearing names when working
in the docks.
Earlier and later varieties of Southampton docks engines are seen in the
form of Ironside, the last survivor from the original Southampton docks locomotives,
and one of Dugal Drummond's small C14 passenger engines later used to shunt
wagons at the docks, and finally the ultimate steam shunters at Southampton,
the class USA 060 tanks. These engines were standard American switcher or
shunting locomotives which were built in the war for use in Europe. A number came
to Britain and with their extremely short wheelbase proved ideal in the docks with
extremely sharp curves. After the war the Southern Railway bought 14 of them to
replace the B4s. The engines became quite popular for rail tours in the 1960s
and two are seen on the Forley branch which runs on the opposite side of
Southampton water to the city itself. This branch was one of the few freight
branches on the southern system serving the Forley oil refinery. The second of
these engines was to be preserved on the Bluebell railway and two other survive
number 30072 on the Keithley and Worth Valley in Yorkshire.
This engine has wandered in preservation and spent a time in 1990 on the East
Lancashire railway. Its bright green livery is known as malachite green and
it reflects the last colour scheme used for southern locomotives before
nationalisation.
The general appearance of the USAs in BR service is seen on number 30065 on the
Kenton East Sussex railway together with another terrier. The London and
Southwestern railway which owns Southampton docks was the largest
constituent of the Southern railway and thus contributed the most locomotives. Due
to the electrification priority many older types continued to exist well into
British Railways days. The most celebrated of which were the Drummond T9
class commonly known as Greyhounds. This was a late Victorian design that had
been updated in the 1920s which survived to the early 1960s on secondary duties.
One was preserved by the southern region in the early 1960s and reappeared in a
rather garish colour scheme that of the old LSWR from 1913 to 1923.
Subsequently returned to work in the 1980s it now sports the old Southern
railway olive green on the Swanwich railway to which it's on loan from the
National Railway Museum York.
The engine spent the 1980s on the Midhants Watercress line where for one
brief event it was paired with another locomotive from the same designer at
Dougal Drummond, a tank locomotive of the M7 class also now in the care of the NRM.
The
Greyhound is the only survivor of 66 T9 class engines and a further 40
developments of it and 80 smaller mixed traffic variants. Although the T9s were
the first of the line they were the most effective and this was borne out by
their survival to the 1960s while the others all went in the 1940s and 50s.
This particular engine was built in 1899. It was hardly ideal to work over the
steeply graded Midhants line which is why it later went to Swanwich.
The M7 is one of two survivors of a class of 105 of the final suburban tank
engine designed for the LSWR. After their original duties were electrified they
migrated to country branches to work short passenger trains operated on the
push-pull principle. For many years they dominated the Midhants line in its
pre-preservation days and here we see 30379 engaged in those duties.
Curiously they continued to have duties in the London suburban area as they
were employed to take coaches from the maintenance depot at Clapham Junction
to Waterloo right up until the early 1960s when they were replaced by
British Railways and standard tank engines. Drummond was something of a
pioneer in standardization. His 700 class freight engines shared many components
such as the mechanical parts and boilers with the M7 tanks and T9s. These small
engines were the Southwestern's largest freight locomotives until the First
World War and were commonly known as black motors. Drummond's successor Robert
Urey realized that something larger was needed and produced a series of 460
designs which were developed into the Southern Railways own standard goods
engines known as the S15 class. This is the last built of these engines which
were equally effective on passenger trains as freight as the Southern never
had any really heavy freight duty hauls and at weekends needed extra locomotives
to deal with holiday traffic. Two of the original Southwestern series of S15
survive on the Midlands Railway. One is in working order and has been restored
to the Southern olive green livery.
It can be fairly said that this was the progenitor of the classic British
460. It was the first to employ two outside cylinders with modern valve
gear and British Railways own final 460 designs were to the same overall
pattern. The Southwestern had 20 of them and 11 of the earlier pattern with
slightly larger driving wheels class H15. A number of the later Southern
Railway built development of the S15 survived. Number 841 is one of the very
last batch built in 1936 and today works on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
From the back of the tender 841 we can see the layout of the driving cab which
we take a ride along the Moors line. The cab appears to be quite spartan but this
was the general theme of steam locomotive cabs. Only in later years were
fully enclosed cabs provided and these were often uncountably hot and airless.
The classic open cab was quite effective when running forwards which was the
normal direction of travel. Robert Urey also produced a series of passenger
460s very similar to the freight S15s. These were also developed by his
successor on the Southern Railway into the celebrated King Arthur's. Here once
again is the sole survivor Sir Lamiot.
In southern days drivers were plagued by drifting smoke so the King Arthur's
were equipped with large metal shields or smoke deflectors at the sides of the
smokebox in an effort to lift the exhaust clear. Here Sir Lamiot illustrates
this phase of the locomotive's career.
In total the Southern Railway produced 54 King Arthur's in addition to the 20
bequeathed to it by the LSWR. There were two distinct types those built by the
railway itself at Eastley Works and those produced in Scotland by the North
British Locomotive Works in Glasgow. Sir Lamiot is one of those Scotsman as is
the engine seen here in the early 1960s near the end of their service careers.
All the Scotsman bore the names of Knights of the Round Table while the
railway-built machines included the class leader King Arthur himself as well as
his Queen Guinevere. One of this series Sir Lamerac is seen leaving Waterloo in
1961. The principal difference is the shape of the cab roof which restricted
these engines to certain routes. Heavy tank engine versions of the original
Urey locomotives existed known as class H16 and G16 and it was perhaps
surprising that the Southern Railway should produce a small freight engine in
the 1930s. Richard Monsall designed the Q class to replace various obsolete small
tender engines from the pre-grouping companies.
They were neat and effective engines and one out of 20 built has been preserved
on the Bluebell Railway where we see it ascending Freshfield Bank.
This little engine represents Monsall's final design. His largest design was the
four-cylinder Lord Nelson class 16 of which were produced in the 1920s. This
was a well-known class again due in part to the publicity value of giving them
names of all-time English heroes. The first engine Lord Nelson himself is
preserved in a rather bilious version of the post-war Malachite green.
The engine worked for the first part of the 1980s on British Rail main lines but
stood out of use at Canforth Depot at the beginning of the 1990s. It's owned by the
National Railway Museum.
Monsall's most successful locomotives were his school's class. These were the
most powerful 440 express passenger locomotives in Europe.
These engines were a scale down Lord Nelson with a shortened King Arthur
boiler and three cylinders. They were built to work on the restricted Hastings
route hence the reversion to the old-fashioned 440 layout. Three have
been preserved. Repson on the Great Central and this engine Stowe on the
Bluebell. 40 schools were built and their influence was felt throughout the
southern system. Not so the next morsel classes the Z 080 shunting tanks and W
General Freight Engines. These two classes were used in the London area to shunt
freight trains and to haul transfer freights to and from the other regions.
The W's were a freight only development of Morsal's general purpose U and N 260
tender engines or moguls. These were originally produced for the Southeastern
and Chatham Railway and were divided into two main types. The U with six foot
driving wheels and N's with five foot six inch drivers. This is one of the U
class which were regarded primarily as passenger engines. Three have been
preserved number 1638 on the Bluebell Railway.
This engine illustrates the class as built without smoke deflectors. 30 of
these engines were built to this pattern and a further 20 were rebuilt from the
River class fast passenger tank engines. One of the latter came to grief at Seven
Oaks in 1927 and ended the use of tank engines on express passenger work on the
Southern. The short runs were really very well suited to the tank engine format.
Note the subsequent fitting of smoke deflectors to this engine.
One of the smaller wheeled Morsal moguls of class N survives on the mid-hands
line. Here it heads a visitor to the railway up the Sevier Bank out of Alton.
The N moguls appeared all over the southern network and in total there were
80 of them. There's was an interesting history. Richard Morsal had come to the
Southeastern and Chatham railway system from Ireland to find a run-down and
obsolete locomotive fleet. A product of the amalgamation of the Southeastern
railway and the London Chatham and Dover railway to form a rival. The moguls were
the first modern designs on the new system and were adopted by the
government as a wartime standard called WD type. Excessive numbers were built and
eventually 50 were acquired from the government by the Southern Railway
whilst others went to Ireland and the Metropolitan Railway. The southern
engines became well known in the West Country where they replaced many
pre-grouping designs surviving to the end of steam. Morsal also turned his hand
to updating the SECR's express passenger locomotives. Weight limits
necessitated a continuance of the smaller 440 types previously in use so
his L1 class was an update of a previous design using weight-saving techniques
wherever possible. The locomotives being quite an advance over the L class which
had appeared just before the First World War. In addition he rebuilt some of the
earlier 440s to produce the E1 and D1 classes which resembled the L1. A number
of the original D class escaped this rebuilding and worked in their original form
until the 1950s and one number 31737 seen here was preserved in 1957 as SECR
number 737 but sadly not in working order. Classes C and 01 were 060 Goods
engines of the Southeastern Railway, the former being a larger type than the
latter. One of each has been preserved. The 01 seen here has a chequered history
as a preserved machine. It was stored at Ashford Works for many years but when
its owner went bankrupt its ownership fell into dispute. Nothing has been heard
of it for many years. The C class has been restored on the Bluebell Railway. The
C class had a tank engine equivalent of class H. These 044 tanks were built
the order of Monsal's predecessor Wainwright. 66 were constructed between
1904 and 1915 and one is preserved number 263 again on the Bluebell. It's
had two overboards in preservation and was to take the rails once again in 1991
restored in the full glory of the elaborate SECR green livery with an
ornate brass dome. The H tanks were the general purpose local passenger engines
in the South East used on motor trains and were stylistically very similar to a
class of 060 tanks before ones which were built from 1888 to 1898. This example had
a cut down chimney for working over the South's first railway the Category and
Whitstable line.
The class R tanks were from the Southeastern rivals and London Chatham
and Dover Railway. 18 were built the last going in 1956. One of the most popular
SECR classes was the diminutive P class of light shunting engines. Two of these
were the first locomotives on the first large-scale preservation project in
Britain, the Bluebell Railway, and were named Bluebell and Primrose respectively.
They still work today. The Bluebell Railway was to extend its working line
in the 1990s and Bluebell was used on a shuttle service over the first part of
this extension, propelling its train at Horst of Keen. Out of eight built four
peas survive. Not quite a record but one of the highest proportions of a class to
survive. 1556 shows how it used to be on the Kent and East Sussex Railway.
The Kesra, as the railway is known, houses a number of small ex-southern engines. Two of the
Brighton terriers run here and are seen together illustrating two livery styles.
The railway has a third terrier but this hasn't worked yet. In total seven of
these small 060 tanks have worked in preservation and ten still exist. Some
have spent a period as pub signs. Their small size but reasonable power make them
very economical for use on lightly loaded trains.
It was the London Brighton and South Coast Railways policy to name all its
passenger locomotives in the 19th century and most tank engines were
named after towns or boroughs served by the railway. This policy has been updated
by the Kesra on this engine whose restoration was funded by the London
borough of Sutton. Its name Sutton.
The terriers, officially class A1X, were immortalised by the Reverend Audrey in
his famous railway engines books and the Bluebell Railways stepney featured
therein. Consequently the engine often returns the compliment by wearing a face
that children love it.
To commemorate the terriers last working home the Haling Island branch the Bluebell
ran stepney as the Brighton work shunter in 1988, 25 years after the branch
closed. Incidentally another nickname of the class was Routers.
The Bluebell has another working A1X number 32636. It was one of the final
survivors working at Haling until November 1963. Built in 1872 it originally
carried the name Fenchurch, was sold out of service in 1898 and returned to the
southern in 1927. Not an unusual career for one of these engines. The Brighton
was predominantly a tank engine railway and William Stroudley produced a number
of other designs including the D3 042 tanks and E1 060s, the latter an
enlargement of the terriers. Some of these were converted to 062 tanks by the
southern for use in the West Country. 76 were built as E1 and 10 converted to the
E1R 062 specification. 062 tanks came in a number of forms on the Brighton.
32418 is an E6, a freight type with small 4 foot 6 inch driving wheels. The
passenger version had five foot drivers and was class E4. The standard Brighton
freight tender engine was class C2, built by the Vulcan foundry and known as
Vulcans. The largest freight engines used by the LBSCR were the class K260s.
These were very successful locomotives, 17 of which were built between 1913 and
1921. Only six of the larger Marsh Atlantics were built. They became
celebrated as the last of their type in service in Great Britain. The final
Brighton passenger class was a large Baltic or 464 tank, seven of which were
built and converted to 460 tender engines after 1935 when the Brighton
main line was electrified. This engine was made remembrance as a mobile memorial
to Brighton men who perished in the First World War.
Regarded by many as the ugliest engines ever built, were the first locomotives
produced of the design of the last Southern Railway chief mechanical
engineer or locomotive designer. Oliver Bulley was appointed to succeed
Monson and proved to be an eccentric genius. He threw all conventions out of
the window with all his locomotive types, these class Q1 06Os known as
Charlie's being just the start of it. They were the most powerful 06Os to appear
in the UK and were regarded as a wartime austerity design. So were his Pacifics, at
least according to Bulley, who produced the first of his controversial merchant navy, West
Country and Battle of Britain locomotives in 1941. These are two of the West
Country class seen in the mid-1960s. Their slab-side features gained them the
nickname spam cans and they were described as being air smoothed rather
than streamlined and a large number have been preserved. This is probably the
best known amongst them, City of Wells, which has had a long career on the main
lines of British Rail being based at Keighley in Yorkshire. Here we see City
of Wells at Keighley passing the connection between the preserved line
and British Rail.
On the Keighley branch the West Country is seen making light of the climb out
of Oakworth. These engines were known as light Pacifics as they were a scaled
down version of the original Bulley Pacifics, the merchant navies, which we'll
see shortly.
Another light Pacific is 257 Squadron, a Battle of Britain. There was no physical
difference between West Country and Battle of Britain classes. This was
merely a naming policy.
Another Battle of Britain to be preserved is Tangmere on the Midhands
Railway. It has yet to run but a preview was given by running the railway's West
Country engine with a Battle of Britain's name and number, emphasizing the
commonality of the two apparent classes.
Here seen with its normal identity is the same engine, Swanage, together with
the Midhands other working West Country Bodmin. Although they look strikingly
different, they're both of the same class. The original bullet design was full of
controversial features, most obvious of which was the air smooth casing and the
fact that the mechanics or valve gear were hidden from sight. Many problems
resulted from these features, mainly on the maintenance side, and so British Rail
reconstructed the engines from 1957 onwards. As this was near the end of
steam, not all were done and a halt was called to the program when 55 out of 110
engines were rebuilt.
Bodmin had one unusual duty when it was taken to the Isle of Grain in Kent to
head the first train of concrete tunnel segments for use in the Channel Tunnel,
it being there for publicity purposes.
The Bullitt Pacifics have always been associated with one of the most famous
passenger trains of all time, the Golden Arrow. Another mainline locomotive is
Tor Valley, which visited the Channel Tunnel threatened Folkestone Harbour
branch in 1991 from where the Golden Arrow used to work.
This branch was celebrated for its 1 in 30 gradient, the
steepest on a BR mainline, so engines always needed a banker or helper engine.
The Bullitts were notorious for slipping, so were not ideal engines for such
duties. They were also not ideal as freight engines. One of the original
series of 30 Merchant Navy class of 1941 is seen on a demonstration freight on
the East Lancashire railway. Celebrating the names of the shipping companies that
use of Southern's Great Port of Southampton, these locomotives were
pronounced mixed traffic by Bullitt to soothe offended nerves during wartime
when it was felt that powerful express passenger locomotives were not
appropriate. This engine is Canadian Pacific, one of the first batch of these
engines. Like the smaller Pacifics, the Merchant Navies were rebuilt by British
railways, in this case all 30 of the class receiving the treatment. So far
three of the engines have worked in preservation. This is Port Line working
on the Bluebell railway.
Perhaps the best known of these engines is 35028 Clanline, which was bought
directly out of service from British Rail in 1967, has worked over their
approved steam routes through the 70s and 80s. In 1991 it was withdrawn for
overhaul and this is its last working prior to overhaul.
Finally we see Clanline once again just before her withdrawal. She was the last
of the Merchant Navies to be rebuilt, effectively the last design of Southern
steam locomotive, as the rebuilding constituted a virtually new type in 1956
when the first of these Pacifics was reconstructed. They last have been
serviced to the very end of steam on the Southern and carry the flag today.