34007 Wadebridge
34007 'Wadebridge' - West Country class mixed traffic locomotive, built 1945 and originally numbered 21C107. Wadebridge was finally returned to steam in 2006 and is normally based on the Mid-Hants Railway but it spent time on the GWR in 2007 and 2008.
- 4-6-2
- Southern Railway
- 1945
- 129 tons
- 4500 gallons
- Designed as a 'light pacific' mixed traffic loco, the West Country class featured the same novel features such as an air-smoothed casing and enclosed chain driven valve gear, as the Merchant Navy class but weighed some 22 tons less. 110 of the class (and the identical Battle of Britain class) were built between 1945 and 1951 and could be found working on anything from the premier expresses to freight trains throughout the Southern Railway system. In the late fifties some were rebuilt, dispensing with the air smoothed casing and chain valve gear but retaining many of the Bulleid features. Wadebridge, however, remained as built and was initially based at Exmouth but spent time at Nine Elms before moving from Salisbury to Dai Woodham's yard in 1965.