Great British Steam - Southern

The steam locomotive was one of history’s greatest inventions, and it revolutionised transport throughout the world. Huge numbers of individual steam locomotives were produced during the two centuries of its history, and in this series we see some of the greatest of them all - those built for the great original railway companies but which eventually went on to form the national British Railways.

The Southern Railway bequeathed a wide range of steam locomotives to British Railways in 1948, including some of the most revolutionary types ever to run on the national system. The Bulleid Pacifics became highly controversial, whether in their original or rebuilt condition, but they were undoubtedly “great” locomotives and many of them are still working today. In this programme we see many Pacifics at work, but these were not the only great locomotives of the Southern. Bulleid’s predecessor, Richard Maunsell, designed some legendary classes, many of which were to bear ringing names dreamt up by the Southern’s brilliant publicity department, including the “King Arthurs”, “Lord Nelsons” and “Schools” classes. We enjoy all of these, together with many of the company’s smaller engines - great steam locomotives in their own right - which handled a great variety of traffic.