Rebuilding
| BR Rebuilt Merchant Navy class | |
|---|---|
| 35028 "Clan Line" as rebuilt without the air-smoothed casing and with Walschaert's valve gear | |
| Power type | Steam |
| Designer | R. G. Jarvis after Oliver Bulleid |
| Rebuilder | Eastleigh Works |
| Rebuild date | 1956–1960 |
| Number rebuilt | 30 |
| Configuration | 4-6-2 (Pacific) |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
| Leading wheel diameter |
3 ft 1 in (0.940 m) |
| Driver diameter | 6 ft 2 in (1.880 m) |
| Trailing wheel diameter |
3 ft 7 in (1.092 m) |
| Length | 71 ft 7 in (21.82 m) |
| Locomotive weight | 97.90 long tons (99.5 t) |
| Fuel type | Coal |
| Fuel capacity | 5 long tons (5.1 t) |
| Water capacity | 6,000 imp gal (27,280 L; 7,210 US gal) |
| Boiler pressure | 250 psi (1.72 MPa) |
| Firegrate area | 48.5 sq ft (4.51 m2) |
| Cylinders | 3 |
| Cylinder size | 18 in × 24 in (457 mm × 610 mm) |
| Tractive effort | 33,495 lbf (149.0 kN) |
| Career | Southern Region of British Railways |
| Class | Merchant Navy |
| Power class | 8P |
| Locale | Great Britain |
Partially because of the Crewkerne incident, and due to the incessant modification of Bulleid’s original design, British Railways took the decision to rebuild the entire class to a more conventional design by R. G. Jarvis, adopting many features from the BR 'Standard' locomotive classes that had been introduced since 1950. The air-smoothed casing was removed and replaced with conventional boiler cladding, and the chain-driven valve gear was replaced with three separate sets of Walschaerts valve gear. The rebuilds were provided with a completely revised cylindrical smokebox, a new Lord Nelson-type chimney and LMS-style smoke deflectors. Together with the lack of air-smoothed casing, these helped reduce the problem of smoke and steam obscuring the driver's vision of the line.
The fast-moving and unpredictable Bulleid steam reverser was replaced with a screw-link version, whilst the mechanical lubricators were moved to the footplates along the boiler sides. Sanding was also added to the leading driving axle, whilst rearward application was incorporated to the middle driving axle. The first rebuild to be released from Eastleigh was 35018 British India Line in 1956. The final example, 35028 Clan Line, was completed in 1960. The success of the rebuilding programme for the Merchant Navy class was also to influence the design of the future rebuild of 60 Light Pacifics.
Read more about this topic: SR Merchant Navy Class
Famous quotes containing the word rebuilding:
“... most Southerners of my parents’ era were raised to feel that it wasn’t respectable to be rich. We felt that all patriotic Southerners had lost everything in defense of the South, and sufficient time hadn’t elapsed for respectable rebuilding of financial security in a war- impoverished region.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 1 (1962)
“But look what we have built ... low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.... Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums.... Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)