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A Brief History of 35028 "Clan Line"
Profile of a Merchant Navy Class loco in original form.
Clan Line is one of the famous Merchant Navy Class locomotives built by the Southern Railway to the design of it's Chief Mechanical Engineer Oliver Bulleid. The class was named after the shipping lines that the used docks that the Southern Railway served. In all 30 Merchant Navy class locomotives were built and in their original form exhibited many innovations. These included a steel boiler which used the latest welding technology, thermic syphons to improve water circulation, and American style Disk wheels to eliminate hammer blow to the track. However the most revolutionary feature of the design was the chain driven valve gear enclosed in an oil bath.
Down "Golden Arrow" Tonbridge 26th March 1953
Externally the locomotives where enclosed in an "air smoothed" casing. Because of their shape they rapidly acquired the nickname of "Spam Cans" after the tins of American luncheon meat shipped to the UK in huge quantities during the war. While the locomotives performed very well some of the more novel features proved difficult and expensive to maintain, so eventually in the mid 1950's, the decision was taken by British Railways to rebuild the locomotives into more conventional practice. In the new form the air smoothed casing was removed and the chain driven valve gear replaced by three sets of Walscherts valve gear.
Close up of RH side valve gear.
The rebuild was a great success, the class proving itself to be very free running and free steaming, whilst proving cheaper to maintain.
Profile of Merchant Navy Class loco as rebuilt by BR.
35028 was built at Eastleigh locomotive works in 1948. After a few weeks running in she was allocated to first to Dover then to Stewarts Lane shed in London where she worked heavy trains on the trunk routes to the South East Channel ports, frequently working the prestige expresses, "Golden Arrow" and "The Night Ferry".
After rebuilding in 1959 she was initially allocated to Nine Elms shed where she headed such trains as the "Bournemouth Belle" and the "Atlantic Coast Express. Indeed, it was while working the A.C.E. in 1961 she was unofficially timed at 104 mph passing Axminster. On July 2nd . 1967 Clan Line hauled a farewell special from Waterloo to Bournemouth and back and thus ended her BR career.
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