#ThisWeekIn 1951, 35011 General Steam Navigation left Eastleigh works following a light intermediate overhaul. During her visit to the works GSN had 400 steel stays repaired and 30 new “Howell” tubes installed. The major change was the new paint on the engine, gone was the Southern Railway malachite green replaced with the new British Railways Brunswick green.
General Steam Navigation was the last Merchant Navy built and operated by the Southern Railway to wear the malachite livery, having never worn the BR express blue livery. The short-lived British Railways express blue was dropped by the Southern Region as soon as it could with 35024 being repainted into the Brunswick Green livery in May 1951. General Steam Navigation would wear the Brunswick Green livery for another 15 years before being withdrawn in 1966.
Putting Funds into the Frames
We have therefore set up a Fund for the Frames that will be essential for the successful restoration of 35011 back into her original condition. Not only do we need to clean and review the condition of the frames as they exist today, any corroded sections of the framework, the rear platform and dragbox will cut out and replaced. We also need to reverse some of the areas that were changed during rebuilding to allow a new middle cylinder to be installed and reinstate Bulleid’s unique patented chain driven valve gear.
This a general fund with no minimum / maximum donation or number of contribution limits, all monies donated to the Fund for the Frames will be specifically ring fenced for the frames. If you are able to contribute to this project in any way however great or small, we thank you for your support.
This was to aid their understanding of the geometry they’re studying as part of developing the internal aerodynamics and draughting of our 35011 General Steam Navigation.
It was at this time that General Steam Navigation was re-numbered from 21c11 to 35011. When Oliver Bulleid built his new engines he adopted a new numbering scheme for all his locomotives based on Continental practice. The Southern Railway numbers followed an adaptation of the UIC classification system of using letters and numbers to designate the powered and unpowered axles, together with a running number. This first appeared on Bulleids Q1 class of engine where “C” refers to the number of coupled driving axles – in the Q1s case three. All these locomotives therefore carried numbers which started “C” followed by the individual identifier from C1 to C40. The first Merchant Navy built Channel Packet a pacific class 4-6-2 locomotive became 21C1 – where “2” and “1” refer to the number of unpowered leading and trailing axles respectively, and “C” again referring to the number of driving axles, in the Merchant Navys case three followed by the individual identifier. The remainder were numbered 21C2-21C20. The scheme was abandoned by British Railways in 1948 and the existing locomotives were renumbered under the British Railways standard system in the series 35001-35020; the final batch appeared in traffic as 35021-35030.