Arriving Embsay station on the Embsay Bolton Abbey
Line
Here's the short version without my cough
Some more information courtesy of the Southern E group
Southampton Docks had been well served by the Drummond B4 tanks for many years, supplemented by ex-LBSCR D1, then E1, tanks, but by the end of the war a number of new boilers were required. Prior to the war Eastleigh Works had quoted a figure of £865 per boiler but by 1945 this figure had inflated to £1,580 - plus an eighteen month delay! Because of this Bulleid was forced to look for a suitable replacement, and he found it amongst the dumped British and US War Department tanks. He rejected the former on account of their 11 foot wheelbase, inside cylinders and poor condition but found the US built locos in far better condition as few had actually been used since their trial runs, with one never having been steamed at all! They also had a 10 foot wheelbase and outside cylinders so on 29 April 1946 NºWD4326 (much later 30074) was taken into Eastleigh Works for attention. It ran trials at Southampton for several months after which it and 13 more were purchased, plus one more (WD1261) to be a source of spare parts. The operational locomotives became SR numbers 61-74, although 74 never carried its Southern Railway number as it ran as 4236 until November 1948. Prior to entering service such items as steam heating, vacuum ejectors, sliding cab windows, additional lamp irons and new cylinder drain cocks had to be added. In addition, a lot more modifications became necessary once the locomotives started to enter traffic. Large roof-top ventilators were fitted, British regulators (as built they had US-style pull-out ones), three rectangular cab-front lookout windows, extended coal bunkers (increasing capacity from 26cwt to 30cwt), separate steam and vacuum brake controls and wooden tip-up seats. Because of this it wasn't until November 1947 that they were all at work.
