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 comprehensive review of the motive power it had just inherited from the ‘Big Four’ independent railway companies. What soon became clear was that the entire locomotive fleet was made up from hundreds of different class types, large numbers of which were nearing retirement or in some cases, were already life-expired. Immediately after starting the government-owned organisation had to cut costs as quickly and as practical as possible. No mean undertaking with a war-battered railway. 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 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 best qualities of each into his standardised locomotives, thus procuring the greatest engineering feats from all of the former railway companies. His first move towards creating the 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. For instance, LMS locomotives operated 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. In a similar way, 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 particular locomotive classes were to certain stretches of line.
On completion of 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 varying approaches to locomotive design so that they could be used in the new BR standard designs. However, the testing had little scientific rigour, and taking his 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 therefore hardly surprising that nearly all of Riddles’ final products would bear much resemblance to the designs pioneered by the LMS, particularly those locomotives which were products 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 of the new express locomotive designs 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 formerly of the LMS. The imposing engine, finished in a plain black scheme with no lining, was scheduled for a test run between Crewe 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 penultimate 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.
