1948 LOCOMOTIVE EXCHANGES
Seventy years after one of the most remarkable events in British railway history, THOMAS BRIGHT looks backs on the 1948 Locomotive exchange Trials.
In every year that ends with the number 8, enthusiasts all over Britain remember two important anniversaries – the demise of British Railways main line steam, and Mallard’s record-setting speed run. But there’s another significant railway event in British history that happened in a year ending in 8 that seldom gets marked – the 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials. Why is that? Perhaps the trials are seen as being less historically significant. While BR had inherited a plethora of locomotives from the ‘Big Four’ and their pre-Grouping predecessors, it intended to introduce its own standard range of locomotives which could be used nationwide across the railway network, doing away with regional variations in practices, design and operation. In order to decide which design characteristics it should adopt for its proposed fleet of locomotives, BR decided to hold a series of exchange trials in which locomotives of similar design and purpose from each of the ‘Big Four’ would be run under test conditions on ‘foreign’ soil so that, for the first time, the designs could be properly compared and evaluated. But the trials were hardly a level playing field even before a single locomotive had turned a wheel, making the eventual results of limited value. For instance, the Great Western engines
were so wide across the cylinders that the only non-GW routes they could work over were the East Coast and Great Central main lines, thus severely limiting their participation and scope for evaluation. The Bulleid ‘Pacifics’ were fitted with Stanier-pattern tenders on foreign territory and, as the ex-LSWR lines did not have water troughs, the London Midland ‘Duchesses’ and ‘Royal Scots’ were paired with high-capacity War Department eight-wheel tenders to allow them to run long distances without having to stop for water. There were no set standards for driving or firing, and the decree that every locomotive should be fired with Yorkshire coal put the Swindon engines at a disadvantage. Despite that, the trials were an interesting experiment, not least for the hordes of trainspotters, as they afforded them the opportunity to cop locomotives on regions where they might have hitherto never – or at least seldom – been seen before. The trials were also the precursor to the eventual British Railways Standards, though how much influence the exchanges had over the final design of the Standard classes is questionable. Furthermore, that four exchanges trials locomotives – ‘A4’ No. 4468 Mallard, ‘Merchant Navy’ No. 35018 British India Line, ‘2884’ No. 3803 and ‘Modified Hall’ No. 6990 Witherslack Hall – have been preserved is merely a coincidence. None were
THE TRIALS WERE HARDLY A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
preserved specifically for their 1948 credentials, although No. 6990 is, appropriately, preserved on the former London Extension – the very same route over which the Hawksworth 4-6-0 was tested 70 years ago. Further reminders of the exchanges survive in the form of the National Railway Museum’s LNER dynamometer car No. 9020502, which also recorded Mallard’s 126mph maximum on July 3 1938, and the Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust’s ex-Lancashire & Yorkshire dynamometer car, No. 45050. Every other significant railway anniversary is marked in some way, yet there has never been a 1948 locomotive exchange trials-themed gala. Imagine the prospect of pairing – for instance – air-smoothed ‘Battle of Britain’ No. 34081 92 Squadron with a Stanier tender, or Duchess of Sutherland with a WD example – two sights never before seen in preservation. A ‘B1’, ‘Black Five’, ‘Royal Scot’ and ‘8F’ could be renamed and renumbered to represent those that participated in the exchanges (see panel), and why not organise railtours with those main lineregistered examples to work over the same routes upon which their classmates were put through their paces 70 years ago? After all, the 75th anniversary of the locomotive exchange trials is only five years away…