Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era – 1949 – Bulleid ‘Leader’ – Southern Railway

No.36001 in 1950

Although designed by O.V.Bulleid under the SR regime this remarkable locomotive did not actually appear until after Nationalisation. Nothing so revolutionary in steam locomotive design had been seen since the Midland Paget engine of 1908. It incorporated many novel features, amongst which may be mentioned the sleeve type valves, and the coupling of the six wheels comprising each bogie by means of a chain transmission instead of coupling rods.
The engine may be briefly described as an 0-6-6-0 single boiler articulated unit completely enclosed by an overall casing. There was a cab at either end with duplicated controls, and the fireman had to work amidships alongside the boiler, the longitudinal axis of which is offset to one side of the centre line of the engine. Herein lay one of the principal defects of the design, in that the poor fireman was expected to work under almost impossible conditions such as few would be prepared to tolerate in these days. In this connection it would probably been far more satisfactory if the engine had been constructed as an oil burner. Each bogie had a 3-cylinder engine driving the middle wheels of each 3-axle bogie.

Bulleid Leader Drawing

Bulleid Leader Drawing

Diagram of the Leader locomotive. Drawn 1949 by British Railways, a nationalised (UK government) concern. Date 24 May 2006 (original upload date)  Source Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Oxyman using CommonsHelper.  Author Original uploader was Hellbus at en.wikipedia Permission  (Reusing this file)  PD-BRITISHGOV.
Licensing  This artistic work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the public domain.

It was planned initially to build five of these engines, but only three, Nos.36001-3, were actually constructed and only the first one ever steamed. After a few desultory trials the authorities seemed to lose interest and all three engines were quietly broken up after a very brief existence. The initial faults were many, as would be expected with such an unorthodox machine, but none was such as could not have been rectified with perseverance. Had the matter been pursued the engines might have proved a revolution in railway motive power and even done something to stem the tide of dieselisation which has since taken place.
It may now be regarded as a last, and as it turned out, abortive effort to prolong the use of steam propulsion as a factor of major importance in railway haulage.

Driving wheels – 5’ 1”, Cylinders (6) – 12¼”x 15”, Pressure – 280 lb., Tractive effort – 26350 lb., Weight – 100 tons (approx).

Uploaded from http://www.semgonline.com/steam/leader_05.html (Southern Email Group) on 19 September 2006.  Official photograph of the Leader locomotive taken at Oxted. Taken on 22 November 1949 by British Railways, a nationalised (UK government) concern.(Source: Robertson, Kevin: The Leader Project (Hinckley: Ian Allan, 2007), 90) Date 19 September 2006 (original upload date) Source Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Oxyman using CommonsHelper. Author Original uploader was Old Moonraker at en.wikipedia Permission (Reusing this file) PD-BRITISHGOV.
Licensing: This artistic work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the public domain.

 

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era 1941 – Bulleid ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacifics – Southern Railway

35026 as rebuilt

The first engine of the 4-6-2 type to run on Southern Railway metals appeared under conditions of some secrecy owing to war conditions during 1941. It was a 3-cylinder engine incorporating many novel features, including a thermic siphon, only once before used in this country, and a patent valve gear of O.V.Bulleid’s own design in which the primary drive is by means of chains enclosed in an oil bath. The novel design of wheels, reminiscent of Hackworth’s engines of early days may also be noted. It was fully streamlined, or air-smoothed, as it was referred to at the time. A new and somewhat peculiar numbering scheme was also introduced, in which the prefix 21C indicated the wheel arrangement – two pairs of bogie wheels, a trailing axle, with the C designating the three pairs of coupled wheels. The first engine, No.21C1 was named ‘Channel Packet’ and they were known as the ‘Merchant Navy’ class. Nos.21C2-10 all appeared in 1941-2, followed by Nos. 21C11-20 in 1944-5. Ten more came out after Nationalisation in 1948 with rational numbers, 35021-30, when the original batches were altered to 35001-20.

These engines have done a great deal of heavy main line service on the SR, but the valve gear was not entirely satisfactory, and commencing with No.35013 in 1956 this was replaced by the Walschaert type and at the same time the streamlined casing was removed, with considerable improvement to the looks of the locomotives. Their original boxed-in appearance gave rise to their being somewhat irreverently described as ‘spam-cans’.
All of the class were rebuilt by 1959 and seemed likely to see a good many more years’ service.
Driving wheels – 6’ 2”, Cylinders (3) 18”x 24”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 33495 lb., Weight – 94 tons 15 cwt (as built), 97 tons 18 cwt (as rebuilt), BR classification – 8P.