Shortly after nationalisation in 1948, the then newly formed British Railways Board (BRB) undertook a comprehensive review of the locomotive stock it had just inherited from the ‘Big Four’ independent railway companies. It was quickly realised that the whole stable of steam locomotives comprised of a huge variety of different class types, large numbers of which were nearing retirement or in some cases, were already life-expired. Immediately after starting the government-owned organisation had to reduce costs as quickly and as practical as possible. Not an easy task with a war-battered railway. However, efforts began in earnest almost immediately and in its first 12 months, the BRB had recruited the renowned locomotive engineer Robert A Riddles, formerly of the LMS, to take responsibility for the Mechanical & Electrical Engineering department. Riddles was given the task of developing a new small range of new steam locomotive designs, which would eventually replace the older pre-nationalised classes.

Riddles’ opted for a plan of action which was to use the best pre-nationalisation designs and incorporate the finest qualities of each into his standardised locomotives, thus amalgamating the greatest engineering feats from all of the former railway companies. His first move towards producing new designs were the ‘Locomotive Exchange Trials’. Riddles started his quest by selecting a number of express type locomotives from each of the newly-formed Regions and using them on ‘foreign’ territory. For example, LMS locomotives operated over the Southern Region where there were no water troughs. These were thus married together with four-axled ex-War Department tenders with larger water tanks. These were given LMS lettering especially for the occasion. Similarly, ex-Southern Region types used elsewhere were paired with ex-LMS tenders with water scoops. This yielded some important information for the design team on how suitable certain locomotive classes were to certain stretches of line.

On completion of the Locomotive Exchange Trials, Riddles’ Chief Draftsmen went back to the drawing board and began to formulate the first of the then new ‘standardised’ steam locomotives. Officially, these comparisons were intended to establish the best qualities of the four varying approaches to locomotive design in order to incorporate them in the new BR standard designs. However, the testing lacked any real scientific value, and taking his background into consideration and other political influences, it meant that LMS practice was largely followed by the new standard designs regardless, and it is not really surprising that nearly all of Riddles’ final products would bear much resemblance to the designs pioneered by the LMS, particularly those locomotives which were designes of Stanier and Ivatt.

However, the trials served as a useful publicity stunt for BR to show the unity of the new British Railways. By 1950 the first express passenger locomotive design had been finalised at Derby and in the same year, the British Transport Commission placed an order with Crewe Works for the building of twenty-four of the type. What came forth from Crewe on 2nd January 1951 was a 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive looking bearing a significant resemblance to the Coronation class of locomotives designed by William Stanier, also formerly of the LMS. The imposing engine, finished in a plain black scheme with no lining, was scheduled for a test run between its birthplace and Carlisle on 11th January 1951, a dynamometer carriage being one of the consists of the train it was to haul. After the run, which proved to be a promising start for the class, the locomotive, numbered 70000, was repainted into the much more familiar lined BR Brunswick Green and delivered to Marylebone station on the penultimate day of January to be named. No. 70000 was appropriately called ‘Britannia’, after the female personification of the British Empire, and it marked a very promising step forward for BR.

To mark the Sixtieth Anniversary of the 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials, in 2008 Hornby Railways produced a Limited Edition Model of a 4-6-2 West Country Class Locomotive ‘Bude’ No 34006. This model, represents the classic pairing of a Southern Region Bulleid Pacific with a Stanier Tender. For the collectors out there, the Hornby R2685 West Country Class ‘Bude’ with Stanier Tender was only produced in a limited run of 2008 and each of the model trains came with a numbered Certificate of Authentication.

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