Bullied Pacifics

[Griffstein]

Hi everyone, I’d like to get straight to the reason of joining this forum. I have sifted through many websites and have been unable to identify certain steam Locomotives at a certain time in my life. I hope I don’t bore you all and maybe it will set up challenges for some of you?!
I lived in Dartford in Kent approx 40ft away from the railway line in Fulwich Road between the years of 1960 and 68. Can anyone tell which steam West Country, B of B and Merchant navy locos went through at this time??? To be honest, any steam locos that anyone knows would be a fantastic help? I look forward to any help that might be out there 😊
Kindest Regards , Griffstein

[G6 UXU]

Hello Griffstein and welcome to the forum from all the Staff, have a look around and maybe you could find some answers there and I think that some of our members from the London area might be able to help you also.

[TRP]

Hi Griffstein, welcome to the forum.
Finding the info in one place is proving difficult! What I would say is that BR steam on the South Eastern Division of the Southern Region ended in the early 60s, with Southern Region steam ending completely on 9th July 1967 (the South West Main Line was the last remaining steam section).
Take the Motive Power Depots for example - Stewarts Lane MPD (73A) closed to steam in 1963; Bricklayers Arms (73B) closed to steam in 1962; Hither Green (73C) appears to have lost it's steam allocation in 1962; Faversham (73E) closed to steam in 1959; both Dover (73H) and it's sub-shed at Folkestone Junction closed in 1961; Ramsgate (73G) lost it's steam allocation in 1960. That's not to say that these dates were definitely the end of steam in Kent as occasional workings may still have run, possibly working through from other regions, but this would certainly have been the end of regular steam.
One Bulleid pacific which definitely passed through Kent during this time was rebuilt 'Battle of Britain' No.34100 'Appledore' as this is recorded as working the last steam-hauled 'Golden Arrow' on 11th June 1961.

Some good reference sources include:

Kent Rail - https://www.kentrail.org.uk/index.htm
which includes pages on specific categories including Dartford station - https://www.kentrail.org.uk/Dartford.htm
Bulleid light pacifics - https://www.kentrail.org.uk/bulleid_light_pacific.htm
and Merchant Navy class - https://www.kentrail.org.uk/merchant_navy_class.htm

BR Locomotive Database - http://brdatabase.info/sites.php?pag...e=locos&id=517
This link is set for Stewarts Lane Depot (73A) and should be set for the locos allocated which shows all locos allocated to the depot under BR with dates to and leaving the depot.
From this I can see that during the period of 1960 onwards the following Light Pacifics were allocated to 73A:
34001 'Exeter' (from 10/2/61 until 26/5/61)
34004 'Yeovil' (from 10/2/61 until 26/5/61)
34077 '603 Squadron' (until 26/5/61)
34085 '501 Squadron' (until 17/1/61)
34086 '219 Squadron' (until 26/5/61)
34087 '145 Squadron' (until 26/5/61)
34088 '213 Squadron' (until 26/5/61)
34089 '602 Squadron' (until 16/9/63)
34100 'Appledore' (until 16/9/63)

If you repeat the search with other depots on the South Eastern Division such as Hither Green, Ramsgate etc. you should find all the other allocations.

Hope this helps,

Tony

[TRP]

Following on from this, using the BR Locomotive Database to search by class (for West Country/Battle of Britain) and selecting allocations, it gives a list of all the allocations (since 1948 under BR) for all members of the class: http://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.p...e=S&page=alloc
Taking a couple of now-preserved locos as examples, you can see that 34027 'Taw Valley' had spells at Bricklayers Arms, Ramsgate & Bricklayers Arms again until moving to the Central Division at Brighton (75A) on 26/5/61, while 34070 'Manston' was at Ramsgate, Dover and Ashford (73F) before moving to the Western Division at Exmouth Junction on 9/11/61.

As for the Merchant Navy pacifics, they were almost exclusively used on the Western Division, apart from a relatively short period in the 1950s when a few were allocated to the South Eastern Division, principally to work the London-Dover/Folkestone Boat trains including the 'Golden Arrow', but the Light Pacifics and BR Standard 'Britannia's were more commonly used for these trains.
From BR Locomotive Database - http://brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?a...e=S&page=alloc - only the following were allocated to Stewarts Lane (73A) on the South Eastern Division:
35001 'Channel Packet' (25/1/57-14/6/59)
35014 'Nederland Line' (21/6/55-15/6/56)
35015 'Rotterdam Lloyd' (15/6/56-14/6/59)

Tony

[Griffstein]

Hi there Tony. Thank you very much for a detailed response. It is very much appreciated. I have looked before at some of your leads but there are some very useful leads that I haven’t , so, thank you once again. I’m confident there were unrebuilds trundling through Dartford. Although I was young, their shape is so distinctive. I’ve seen a front end photo of one heading on the up line approaching Dartford station but not clear enough to get the number. The reason for the research is to be able to accurately respray and renumber an O gauge Loco for my layout.

[Grosvenor]

Hi Griffstein
I can confirm that the last 5 merchant navys 35026 to 35030 were allocated to the South Eastern division between 1950 and 1956, they regularly operated both the Golden Arrow and the Night Ferryduring that time. Three were allocated to Stwearts Lane and two to Dover Marine I used to see them regularly during that time when I was at school in the area.