The Locomotive Exchange Trials of 1948
Shortly after nationalisation in 1948, the then recently formed British Railways Board (BRB) decided to carry out a comprehensive review of the locomotive stock it had just inherited from the ‘Big Four’ independent railway companies. It soon became apparent that the entire locomotive fleet was made up from hundreds of different class types, many of which were getting close to retirement or in some cases, were already life-expired. Immediately after starting the government-owned organisation needed to reduce costs as quickly and as practical as possible. Not an easy task with a war-battered railway. However, efforts began in earnest almost immediately and in 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, which would eventually replace the older pre-nationalised classes.
Riddles’ opted for a plan of action which was to utilies the best pre-nationalisation designs and incorporate the best qualities of each into his new designs, 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 started his quest by choosing a number of express type locomotives from each of the newly-formed Regions and employing them on ‘foreign’ territory. As an example, LMS engines were run over the Southern Region where there were no water troughs. To compensate for this they were married together with four-axled ex-War Department tenders with larger water tanks. These were specifically given LMS lettering for the occasion. Similarly, ex-Southern Region locomotives used elsewhere were married together with ex-LMS tenders with water scoops. This yielded some important information for the design team 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 shape the first of the then new ‘standardised’ steam locomotives. Officially, these trials were to identify the best qualities of the four different approaches to locomotive design in order to incorporate them in the new BR standard designs. However, the testing lacked any real scientific value, and taking Riddles’ background into consideration 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 virtually all of Riddles’ final products would closely resemble the designs pioneered by the LMS, in particular those locomotives which were designes of Stanier and Ivatt.
However, the trials served as a useful publicity stunt 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 in the 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 conspicuously like 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 carriages 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 released 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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