SR Leader Class
Design and development
Bulleid's brief in 1946 was to design a steam replacement for the LBSCR's elderly tank fleet. His response was extraordinarily ambitious: a 0-6-6-0T with two six-coupled bogies (driver-only on each), an enclosed body shell, sleeve valves, oil firing, and a side-corridor cab arrangement that allowed the driver to walk through the engine. The design rejected almost every assumption of conventional British steam practice.
5 were ordered for the SR (later BR Southern Region). The prototype, 36001, ran tests from 1949 but suffered constant teething problems — overheating bearings, sleeve-valve seizures, weight distribution issues, and inadequate steaming. After Bulleid's departure for Ireland, the project lost its champion; the four uncompleted Leaders and 36001 were scrapped in 1951.
Service and withdrawals
The Leader never entered regular service. All five were scrapped without preservation — perhaps the most regrettable loss in British post-war locomotive engineering, given the engineering interest of the design.
Identification features
0-6-6-0 tank with two six-coupled bogies, enclosed body shell with cabs at both ends, side-corridor design.
Notable locomotives
- 36001 (1949, scrapped 1951)