The Merchant Navy Class

When I was 3 or 4 years old, my Dad took me to London for the day. We were staying with my uncle in Winchester at the time. On that day, I know that I would have seen un-rebuilt Merchant Navy Class locomotives and probably quite a few of them. By the time I was old enough to show a more perceptive interest, however, they had all been rebuilt into their final form.

From the pictures, their rebuilt form was preferable. They wore their air-smoothed casing less comfortably than the light Pacifics and the nameplate looked to me as though it was set too low. The rebuilt version is to my mind one of the most pleasing designs of all the main line express passenger engines. Everything appears to be perfectly harmonious and in balance.

I got to see all thirty, eventually, even though I had to count my last one, No. 35020 Bibby Line, when her boiler had already been separated from her frames during the scrapping process at Eastleigh works in the summer of 1965. It was not a very satisfying way to wrap up such a distinguished class, but I’m gradually getting over my disappointment at being a few months too late to see her all in one piece.

John Dyer’s picture shows No 35028 Clan Line preparing to take a relief to the Bournemouth Belle out of Southampton Central in August 1961. Last year’s photos are of No 35018 British India Line on the Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express at Carlisle.