LNER Route: Leicester to Marylebone

Staverton Road: gcrsr39

Ex-SR 4-6-2 West Country class No 34006 'Bude' is seen with LMS tender on a down express during the locomotive exchanges on 16th June 1948. The LMS tender was from a 4-6-2 locomotive and was required because none of the Southern Railway's locomotive stock were equipped with tenders fitted with water scoops. The distances travelled and the electrification of many lines negated the reason for the Southern to provide water troughs. The locomotive was built as Southern Railway No 21C 106 in July 1945 at Brighton works, a new and unique numbering system to the British Isles. The locomotive remained in service until March 1967 when it was withdrawn from 70E Salisbury shed and whilst ten this class of Southern Pacifics survived, No 34006 was unfortunate enough to have been sent to the wrong part of Wales and was scrapped in October 1967 at J. Cashmore, Newport.. The numbering system adopted by the Southern was 'borrowed' by Bullied from continental practice and was designed to provide details of the locomotive's configuration. The two sets of numbers in front of the letter C provides the number of axles in front of and behind the driving wheels. Therefore the number 21 (two and one) tells you that the bogie has two axles (four wheels) whilst the trailing truck has one axle (two wheels). The letter C is the third letter of the alphabet so you can determine it has three driving axles. The number 106 tells you its the 106th locomotive of this configuration. See - its simple!!!

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