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 motive power it had just inherited from the ‘Big Four’ independent railway companies. It was quickly realised that the entire locomotive fleet was comprised of a huge variety of different class types, large numbers of which were getting close to retirement or in some cases, were already life-expired. Right from the beginning the government-owned organisation needed to cut costs as quickly and as practical as possible. No mean undertaking with a war-battered railway. However, work began straight away and during its first 12 months, the BRB had recruited the renowned locomotive engineer Robert A Riddles, previously of the LMS, to take responsibility for the Mechanical & Electrical Engineering department. Riddles was given the task of developing a new small range of new steam locomotive designs, the intention being that they replace the older pre-nationalisation locomotives.
Riddles’ opted for a plan of action which was to use the best pre-nationalisation designs and incorporate the finest qualities of each into his new designs, thus procuring the best of the engineering feats from all of the pre-nationalisation railway companies. His first move towards producing new designs were the ‘Locomotive Exchange Trials’. Riddles started his quest by selecting a quantityof express type locomotives from each of the newly-formed Regions and using them on ‘foreign’ territory. For example, LMS locomotives were run over the Southern Region where there were no water troughs. These were thus paired with four-axled ex-War Department tenders with larger water tanks. These were given LMS lettering especially 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.
On completion of 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 to identify the best qualities of the four different approaches to locomotive design so that they could be used 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 was almost predictable 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 bear much resemblance to the designs pioneered by the LMS, in particular those locomotives which were products 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 bearing a significant resemblance to the Coronation class of engines designed by William Stanier, also formerly of 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 class, 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 commemorate 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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