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Bulleid Royal Navy Class light pacifics

Discussion in 'Steam Traction' started by OldChap, Apr 5, 2019.

  1. Daddsie71b

    Daddsie71b Member Friend

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    Douglas Bader VC, Sir Barnes Wallace
    [​IMG]

    Copied from Wikipedia, no acknowledgment of ownership,
     
  2. Daddsie71b

    Daddsie71b Member Friend

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    Sir, you need your underpants set on fire, the man was a genius before his time.
     
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  3. huochemi

    huochemi Part of the furniture

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    I happened to be in Search Engine today and found the attached snippet in the Southern Railway Magazine for 1945 while waiting for some items. I imagine for more background on why certain names were chosen, you would need to have some input from someone who was in the publicity department (which may be out there).
     

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  4. Spamcan81

    Spamcan81 Nat Pres stalwart

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    Douglas Bader was many things but a VC holder he was not and I'm struggling to find a BoB connection for Barnes Wallis.
     
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  5. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    Well that describes exactly what happened but as the class expanded, the locations became just a tad more obscure, shall we say. As for an upthread question about what the SR scrapped after the arrival of 140 new locomotives, the answer is not a great deal and that might explain why quite a lot of locomotives were just hanging around on shed. That said, 16 Lord Nelsons were bounced off the 2 hour Bournemouths at a stroke, much to the relief of loco crews although you could still get a run behind them on the 1130 semi fast. And then there were the Schools.....But, I digress.
     
  6. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    Not quite true that the SR didn’t scrap a great deal when the 140 Pacifics were introduced. There was a huge clear out of older pre-grouping locos around 1946 - 1951; almost everything that still survived from Stirling (SER); Kirtley (LCDR) and quite a lot of Billinton (LBSCR) went; more modern locos then cascaded down, creating the space at the top for the Bulleid locos. So the arrival of the Pacifics didn’t instantly cause scrapping of, say, an equivalent number of King Arthurs or Lord Nelsons, but caused a ripple effect as locos moved down to less important duties, and at the bottom the last remaining Stirling F1’s, and Billinton B4x’s and so on were scrapped.

    Tom
     
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  7. Daddsie71b

    Daddsie71b Member Friend

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    Strange this interweb thingy, that was a draft that was deleted, yet when I sent the picture it re appeared.
    Absolutely right about Wallis, he was in the senior service, whilst Bader was a crab with lots of distinction but no V.C.
     
  8. Matt37401

    Matt37401 Nat Pres stalwart

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    As one of my old customers has told me on numerous occasions Mr Bader was not a popular gent in the RAF, according to my customers father, he was very much the big 'I am' and his transfer to Colditz was very well received by those whose had their carefully planned escape attempts thwarted by his 'I must get out at all costs' mentality. Also considering the hatchet job himself and Leigh-Mallory did on Dowding after 1940 lets just say their were more than few disgruntled faces of several ex veterans when he insisted on taking charge of Lord Dowdings wheelchair on a tour around Duxford during the filming of 'The Battle of Britain' in 1969.
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2019
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  9. Spamcan81

    Spamcan81 Nat Pres stalwart

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    Bader's courage is undoubted but as you say, he was deeply unpopular in some circles.
     
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  10. nine elms fan

    nine elms fan Part of the furniture

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    I visited Lundy a few years ago, dammed if I could find a railway track.
     
  11. Martin Perry

    Martin Perry Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator Friend

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    If you were going to honour the highest scoring RAF pilot of the Battle of Britain, it would be Sgt Josef Frantisek.
    Barnes Wallis was busily engaged in designing Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs at the time, and the 'Victory' bomber to carry them.
     
  12. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    That suggests that "West Country" was a convenient label after those counties had been chosen, not the criterion for selecting names. Somerset is in the West Country but irrelevant because the Southern didn't go there (except as Somerset & Dorset).
     
  13. Johnb

    Johnb Nat Pres stalwart

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    Barnes Wallis wasn’t in any service, he was one of the greatest scientists and inventors of the 20th century with the Wellington Bomber, bouncing bomb and the later ‘earthquake’ bombs to his credit. It is shameful that he had to wait until he was in his 80s before being honoured with knighthood.
     
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  14. domeyhead

    domeyhead Member

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    While we're talking of WC/BB names - there was one name that could at a stretch just about qualify as either - 10 points to the first correct answer.
     
  15. Matt37401

    Matt37401 Nat Pres stalwart

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    Blenheim?
     
  16. LesterBrown

    LesterBrown Member

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    The old trackbed is on the east side of the island linking the granite quarries to the former stone dressing sheds.
     
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  17. domeyhead

    domeyhead Member

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    I was thinking of an actual WC/BB name - have another crack!
     
  18. 30567

    30567 Part of the furniture Friend

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    34003?
     
  19. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    Do you mean Yeovil(ton) as the RNAS had quite an influence in WW2 that is not really picked up in any BB names that is RAF focused?
     
  20. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Nothing to disagree with there, though other factors, unique to the Southern can't be ignored (even if they've previously been raised - once or twice - on other threads).

    The biggie on the Southern of course, was the serious investment in electrification, on the busiest mainlines accounting for much of the passenger traffic. By WWII, this had already reached Gillingham (Kent), Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Eastbourne, Brighton, Guildford, Portsmouth, Reading, plus the south coast line.

    Another big factor, I guess, was the lack of much by way of heavy bulk minerals traffic on the Southern, meaning a whole category of loco didn't get completely shagged out and need replacing every 20 years.

    On the passenger side, Maunsell's development of the N15 ('King Arthur'), introduction of LN ('Lord Nelson') and V ('Schools') and his inspired rebuilding of Wainwright's 4-4-0s undoubtedly went a long way to explaining why the divisions weren't constantly howling for new passenger locos. Shame Maunsell didn't have a stab at fine tuning Billinton's rebuilt Brighton B4Xs, which could and should have been at least as good as the D1/E1 rebuilds ..... damn those restricted steam chests.

    A final thought .... the downturn in traffic, following the Wall Street Crash, certainly put the kybosh on any more V ('Schools') class. Doubtless, other building / rebuilding programmes were curtailed around this time. I'm unaware of the effects (if any) of the crash on the pace of the electrification programme.
     
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