Blackmore Vale, Bluebell Railway at Sheffield Park

dsw_558, on November 26, 2008, said:

Lovely photo!

Nick Weall, on November 27, 2008, said:

I used to see this one pass through Gillingham Dorset - now and then I think when I was a kid. The class was great.

ACRONYM, on November 30, 2008, said:

Greetings dbcamco. I remember this ran on the London to Brighton line before WWII, and an engine of this class was known as the Brighton Belle.

I believe that the designer was a guy called Bullied (or similar) Also, Hornby Dublo produced this in oo gauge many years ago.

Kind regards---Jim

ACRONYM, on November 30, 2008, said:

I remember now that this pacific loco was known as the Merchant Navy class and can be seen in Wiki

Cheers---Jim_

Nick Weall, on November 30, 2008, said:

Hi Jim

It also ran on the Waterloo to Exeter line - and made a lovely noise when starting off - with plenty of wheel spin too - when they were pulling expresses and ran through the station without stopping that too was a lovely burble ~ they were great engines

dsw_558, on December 1, 2008, said:

Was the Waterloo to Exeter line also part of the Southern Railway?

Nick Weall, on December 1, 2008, said:

Yes very much so :-)

dbcamco1, on December 8, 2008, said:

Thanks for the comments, I agree they were amazing loco's, even more so as the class were built whilst WW2 was raging (they were mean't to be an austerity type built on the cheap).

Nick Weall, on December 8, 2008, said:

Oliver V S Bullied was the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Region at time and he designed this engine. These were the Merchant Navy Class of which 30 were built, there then followed the West Country Class (1945-1951) of which Blackmore Vale is one and Gillingham where I used to see it is in the heart of the Blackmore Vale! There was also the Battle of Britain Class included in this exactly the same design and around 110 in total of these two variations were built. I saw most of them usually hauling passenger carriages. Do any of you guys admit to remembering Ian Allens train spotting books? Having all the classes set out in them for each region and all the numbers and or names?

No this is not all the result of my fantastic memory I needed to look some of it up, so I'm not that smart!

dsw_558, on December 8, 2008, said:

Sure, I remember Ian Allens (isn't it actually Ian Allna?) train spotting books and I even had the pleasure to go to a slide show + lecture he gave in Clair Hall in Haywards Heath. Must have been 1988 or 1989. Excellent chap!

Nick Weall, on December 8, 2008, said:

I'm dyslexic so quite capable of muddling up the easiest of words :0 I'm sure it wasn't Allna though maybe Allan maybe I'm wrong. Wow fancy going to see the great man ~ lucky you

Nick Weall, on December 8, 2008, said:

well google recognises Ian Allan so you are right ~ well done dsw_558

Nick Weall, on December 30, 2008, said:

And time to bring this one into the frame as well :)