Historical Background to the Battle of Britain Class - Part 4

Following nationalisation the locos were renumbered, initially with the 'S' prefix to the Bulleid number, and later with the West Countries as 34001-47/91-108 and their Battle of Britain sisters as 34048-90/109/110.

These handsome modern locomotives were popular with some crews (at sheds such as Exmouth Junction at least) and versatile, responded well to proper handling, though prone to a distinctive and potentially monumental driving wheel slip when starting off due to adhesion problems caused by a very high power to weight ratio. As intended, their light axle loading permitted a wide route availability over the lightly laid lines of the west country.

In common with the 30 larger 'Merchant Navy' pacifics introduced by Bulleid in 1941 (of which they were a lighter development) they shared all the heavy express passenger trains on the Southern including the 'Golden Arrow', 'Night Ferry', Bournemouth Belle' Pullman train, 'Royal Wessex', 'Channel Islands Express' and 'Atlantic Coast Express'.

Due to their high running costs, sixty of the 110 (from a planned 75, reduced due to the planned end of steam traction) were rebuilt by British Railways at Eastleigh works as they became due for a major overhaul, between May 1957 and May 1961, with the air-smoothed casing and leaky oil-bath enclosed chain driven valve gear replaced by standard Walschaerts gear. Seventeen of these were BoB class engines.