Taw Valley to be repainted in wartime black
FOLLOWING its high-profile year carrying purple livery to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Severn Valley Railway-based Bulleid Merchant Navy Pacific No. 34027 Taw Valley is to be repainted into Southern Railway wartime black.
It was promised that the purple livery would be short-lived and it was anticipated that No. 34027 would revert to BR green. Instead, it will be painted in wartime austerity matt black livery, with sunshine yellow lettering SOUTHERN adorning the tender, and its original SR number 21C127 will on the cabside. The nameplates will have a red background and no smokebox number. It will be a first in preservation for a Bullied, but others of the class carried the livery in their original as-built condition.
SVR’s head of steam engineering, Duncan Ballard, said: “We have chosen this livery not only because we know it’s going to spark plenty of interest among heritage enthusiasts and the public, but also because it offers us a very practical short-term solution.
“We need to replace 34027’s purple livery because that was purely for the platinum jubilee year. Applying matt black paint will be a hugely labour-saving job, just as it was when it was used during the war. We plan to carry out this out in January, so the locomotive is ready to enter service when we reopen in early March.
“No. 34027 will be needed to haul public services through to autumn 2023, at which point we will withdraw it from traffic for an intermediate overhaul, which is likely to see the locomotive out of traffic for a year or so. Following this essential maintenance, we will repaint it back into full BR green with red and black lining. Putting it back into this livery is definitely something we want to take our time to complete to the highest of standards.”
An original plan to repaint 34027 this autumn was changed because of an operational need for the locomotive to be available for the SVR’s extensive range of Christmas services, which will run until early January.
General manager Helen Smith said: “We know that a matt black Taw Valley is going to cause a stir, but let’s face it – at the SVR we’re not afraid to do things a little differently!
“It is certainly going to look amazing in austerity black, especially when we relaunch our Step Back to the 1940s events next summer.”
Phil Swallow, of Taw Valley Limited, which owns the locomotive, said: “Our loco wasn’t built until 1946, the year after the Second World War ended. It was then rebuilt by BR in the 1950s into the form we see today.
“In reality, it would never have carried a matt black livery in its rebuilt form, so this will be an unusual example of a ‘what if’ livery.
“As the owners of Taw Valley, and just like the SVR, we are no strangers to pushing a few boundaries.
“We are right behind the idea of an austerity locomotive and can’t wait to see it next year.”