SR Merchant Navy Class No.35009 Shaw Savill is a 're-built' SR Merchant Navy Class

SR Merchant Navy class

The SR Merchant Navy class , was a class of air-smoothed 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotives designed for the Southern Railway of the United Kingdom by Oliver Bulleid...

 'Pacific' (4-6-2

4-6-2

4-6-2, in the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle .These locomotives are also known as Pacifics...

) steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

, named after the Shaw Savill Line, a British merchant shipping company. The locomotive was built at Eastleigh Works

Eastleigh Works

Eastleigh Works is a locomotive, carriage and wagon building and repair facility in the town of Eastleigh in the county of Hampshire in England.-History under the LSWR:...

 in June 1942 in its original air-smoothed form, and given the number 21C9. One of a batch of eight Merchant Navy class locomotives whose air-smoothed casing was made of asbestos board, 21C9 was from the start in wartime black livery. She was allocated to Salisbury shed.

Between 1945 and 1947 the Merchant Navy class were repainted in Malachite

Malachite

Malachite is a copper carbonate mineral, with the formula Cu2CO32. This green-colored mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses. Individual crystals are rare but do occur as slender to acicular prisms...

 green livery, with yellow lining. 21C9 was one of several in a variant of this livery, in which the smokebox

Smokebox

A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a Steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is exhausted to the atmosphere through the chimney .To assist...

 cowls were painted green instead of black. Shaw Savill was repainted in British Railways blue livery in August 1949, and in Brunswick Green in February 1953.

Between 1956 and 1960 locomotives of the Merchant Navy class were rebuilt and the air-smoothed casing removed. Shaw Savill was rebuilt in March 1957, withdrawn from service in July 1964 and arrived at Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales

South Wales

South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

 in December 1964. At the time of withdrawal it had travelled 1,127,452 miles.

Some time after 1984, the locomotive left Barry for preservation on the Mid Hants Railway (Watercress Line). It spent just over 4 years there but with the Mid Hants railway buying more locos it was decided to move 35009 Shaw Savill again, to Bury

Bury

Bury is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Irwell, east of Bolton, west-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northwest of the city of Manchester...

.

By late 2009, Shaw Savill lay dismantled at Buckley Wells shed in Bury. Its current owner Ian Riley

Ian Riley Engineering

Riley and Son Ltd , is a railway engineering and spot-hire company, based in Bury, Greater Manchester.-Ian Riley Engineering:...

had previously offered the locomotive for sale, but the locomotive failed to attract a buyer. Riley has now said he will take 35009 on as a mainline restoration project and that it will be outshopped in BR blue livery. The bogies and pony truck were moved into the works in 2010.

External links

• 35009 page on Riley & Son (E) Ltd website – includes photos and 'For Sale' ad
• A picture of Shaw Savill in its glory days
• A picture of Shaw Savill soon after leaving Barry Scrapyard