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The Southern Railway (SR) Merchant Navy Class is a class of 4-6-2 steam locomotive designed by Oliver Bulleid for express passenger work. Thirty were built incorporating a number of novel design features, including an oil bath for the chain-driven valve gear, oval smokebox door and an unusually shaped smokebox door. The SR considered naming them after cathedrals, then victories of World War II (a mocked-up nameplate "River Plate" was produced). They were eventually named for the major shipping companies of the time, a few of which still exist.

Contents 1 Construction history 2 List of Engines and their names 3 Preservation 4 External links

The SR number adapted the UIC classification system where "2" and "1" refer to the number of leading and trailing axles respectively, and "C" refers to the number of driving axles - in this case three. All the locomotives therefore carry the prefix 21C. The final batch of ten engines was built after nationalisation and never carried an SR number: their BR number is shown below.

The class were built in three series:

• 21C1-21C10: Completed 1941-1942

• 21C11-21C20: Completed 1944-1945

• 35021-35030: Completed 1948-1949

The novel features mentioned earlier caused trouble, and BR, under RG Jarvis, set about rebuilding the entire class. The first, 35018 "British India Line", emerged from Eastleigh in 1956. The last, 35028 "Clan Line" was outshopped in 1960.

The last few engines in traffic survived until the end of steam on the Southern Region in the summer of 1967.

The SR West Country Class and the identical SR Battle Of Britain Class were lighter versions of the basic Merchant Navy design.

BR No.	SR No.	Name	Builder	Built	Withdrawn	Scrapped	Preserved/location	Notes
35001	21C1	Channel Packet	Eastleigh	02/1941	11/1964
35002	21C2	Union Castle	Eastleigh	06/1941	02/1964
35003	21C3	Royal Mail	Eastleigh	09/1941	07/1967
35004	21C4	Cunard White Star	Eastleigh	10/1941	10/1965
35005	21C5	Canadian Pacific	Eastleigh	12/1941	10/1965		Y Mid-Hants Railway
35006	21C6	Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co.	Eastleigh	12/1941	08/1964		Y Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway
35007	21C7	Aberdeen Commonwealth	Eastleigh	06/1942	07/1967
35008	21C8	Orient Line	Eastleigh	06/1942	07/1967
35009	21C9	Shaw Savill	Eastleigh	06/1942	07/1964		Y East Lancashire Railway
35010	21C10	Blue Star	Eastleigh	07/1942	09/1966		Y Colne Valley Railway
35011	21C11	General Steam Navigation	Eastleigh	12/1944	02/1966		Y Binbrook industrial estates
35012	21C12	United States Lines	Eastleigh	01/1945	04/1967
35013	21C13	Blue Funnel	Eastleigh	02/1945	07/1967
35014	21C14	Nederland Line	Eastleigh	02/1945	03/1967
35015	21C15	Rotterdam Lloyd	Eastleigh	03/1945	02/1964
35016	21C16	Elder Fyffes	Eastleigh	03/1945	08/1965
35017	21C17	Belgian Marine	Eastleigh	04/1945	07/1966
35018	21C18	British India Line	Eastleigh	05/1945	08/1964		Y Mid-Hants Railway
35019	21C19	French Line CGT	Eastleigh	06/1945	09/1965
35020	21C20	Bibby Line	Eastleigh	06/1945	02/1965
35021	-	New Zealand Line	Eastleigh	09/1948	08/1965
35022	-	Holland America Line	Eastleigh	10/1948	05/1966		Y Southall, London
35023	-	Holland-Afrika Line	Eastleigh	11/1948	07/1967
35024	-	East Asiatic Company	Eastleigh	11/1948	01/1965
35025	-	Brocklebank Line	Eastleigh	11/1948	09/1964		Y Great Central Railway
35026	-	Lamport & Holt Line	Eastleigh	12/1948	03/1967
35027	-	Port Line	Eastleigh	12/1948	09/1966		Y Southall, London
35028	-	Clan Line	Eastleigh	12/1948	07/1967		Y Stewarts Lane, London
35029	-	Ellerman Lines	Eastleigh	02/1949	09/1966		Y	National Railway Museum (sectioned)
35030	-	Elder Dempster Lines	Eastleigh	04/1949	07/1967

Many of the class have survived into preservation thanks to the famous Barry Scrapyard, where steam engines which had been bought from British Railways for scrap were stored rather than cut up. One engine, 35028 "Clan Line", was bought by the Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society direct from BR in 1967.

35005, 35006, 35010, 35011, 35018, 35022, 35025, 35027, 35028 and 35029 still exist, although it is very unlikely that all of them will ever steam again.

• Southern e-group page
• General Steam Navigation 35011

Locomotives of the Southern Railway v • d • e
Maunsell:	H15 - Lord Nelson - N15 (King Arthur) - N15X - Q - V (Schools) - U - U1 - W - Z
Bulleid:	Leader - Merchant Navy - Q1 - USA - West Country/Battle of Britain
Diesels:	10201 to 10203
Locomotives of:	BR (steam) • GWR • LMS • LNER