SR 'Ellerman Lines' 4-6-2 Merchant Navy Class sectioned steam locomotive, No 35029

Steam locomotive and tender (sectioned), No 35029 ‘Ellerman Lines’, Merchant Navy Class, 4-6-2, built for Southern Railway, designed by O V Bulleid at Eastleigh, 1949, rebuilt to current form in Sept. 1959. Length over buffers: 72'; width 8' 7"; height 12' 9"; weight: 97 ton, 18 cwt; driving wheel diameter 6’ 2”.

Ellerman Lines is the National Railway Museum’s only locomotive which shows the internal workings of a steam locomotive. It is a Merchant Navy Class, 4-6-2 locomotive built for Southern Railway, designed by O V Bulleid at Eastleigh, 1949. When Ellerman Lines was built it had air-smoothed casing, and several of Bulleid’s unconventional engineering features, such as chain-driven valve gear in an enclosed sump between the frames. Although speedy and powerful the Merchant Navy Class proved heavy on maintenance and were rebuilt in a more conventional form from the mid-1950s onwards – Ellerman Lines was rebuilt in 1959 to the design it has today.

The Southern Railway’s Merchant Navy Class locomotives were all named after shipping companies which had called at Southampton Docks, many of which were involved in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. The company Ellerman Lines had been operating from the late nineteenth century and large portions of its fleet had been requisitioned by the British Government for war service.

Ellerman Lines was withdrawn from service in 1966. In 1976 it was carefully sectioned on its right-hand side, to reveal the internal construction and the workings of a modern steam locomotive. The National Railway Museum’s Explainers use Ellerman Lines when giving talks about how a steam locomotive works.