Braunton

"West Country Class Steam Locomotive 34046 ‘Braunton"

Braunton 1983 Locomotive no. 34046 ‘Braunton’ is being restored to active service at the Williton Works on the West Somerset Railway.  The locomotive was originally built in 1946 as one of Oliver Bulleid’s West Country class of express passenger locomotives for the Southern Railway.  It was withdrawn from service in 1965 and sent for scrap to Barry in South Wales where it languished by the sea together with hundreds of other steam locomotives.

In it was rescued by preservationists with a view to restoring it for use on a heritage railway.  It was eventually purchased by the West Somerset Railway Association and was moved to Bishops Lydeard in Somerset.  A London-based businessman has provided the finance for ‘Braunton’ to be restored and this work is now underway at Williton.  It is expected that the locomotive will be ready to run on the WSR in 2007.

History of ‘Braunton’ in Southern Railway and British Railways ServiceBraunton 2007

‘Braunton’ emerged brand new from Brighton Works and entered traffic on 14th November 1946 at Exmouth Junction Shed on the edge of Exeter.  The locomotive at this time was numbered 21C146 (34046 from 1949) and carried Bulleid’s air-smoothed boiler casing, which earned the class the nickname of ‘Spam-can’.  During this period the locomotive would have been seen on the Barnstaple to Ilfracombe line passing through the town of Braunton after which it was named.

In 1951 it was re-allocated to Salisbury then Brighton and in 1959 went to Bournemouth where it spent the rest of its working life.  In 1959 it was rebuilt with the air-smoothed casing removed.  The locomotive was withdrawn from service on 10th October 1965 after running 779,210 miles in traffic.