A Tale of Three Countries

Jeff May presented three notable locomotive classes from three different engineers and countries.  All three classes were subject to fundamental modifications, but in each case unmodified locomotives survived to the end.

Jeff first described the Bulleid 4-6-2 Battle of Britain and West Country class.  Introduced from 1945 to 1951 with well-documented innovations, sixty locos were modified between 1956 and 1961 to “standardise” them.  The last surviving locos ran until the end of steam on the Southern Region until 1967.

Jeff then detailed the German 01 Class 4-6-2 locos designed by Richard Paul Wagner, the Deutsche Reichsbahn Chief of Design from 1922 to 1942.  Built from 1925 to 1937 with some design variations, many locos were later modified due to their split ownership between East and West Germany after World War Two.

The final class covered was the South African Railways Class 25 (condensing and non-condensing) locos, designed by Leslie Grubb.  The condensing locos were expensive to maintain and most were converted to non-condensing locos, despite their remarkable efficiency.  They were easily identified by their long tenders.  Jeff also described the “Red Devil” Class 26 derivative.

Jeff’s attention to detail was second to none and his presentation was well illustrated with his own photographs of each class of locomotive.

Hugh Driscoll

Branch Committee