Despite the initial success of the Merchant Navy class, their weight limited the routes they were allowed to use, and following the end of the war years, additional locomotives were required for main-line work.   Bulleid's solution was a slimmed down version of the 4-6-2 M.N. design.   Although money was tight, manufacturing for the War effort meant that at the cessation of hostilities, workshops were operating with machinery and staff, so production could start.

The design was not immediately distinguishable from the later batch of Merchant Navy class locomotives, adopting the same style air-smoothed casing with smoke deflectors, and 6 ft 2 inches diameter driving wheels.   But the 3 cylinders of reduced diameter produced a slightly lower tractive effort of 31,050 lbs, and their shortened length of 67 ft. 4¾ inches allowed them to be 5 tons lighter.  And unlike the double framed tenders of the Merchant Navy class, the light weights had a tender chassis with single frames, as on the Q1.

The first of the class 21C101 'Exeter' was outshopped from Brighton works in 1945, and the batch was allocated to the West of England.  Here there was a need for new motive power, and locomotives were fittingly named after local places and towns.  As production continued, later batches were allocated to the eastern area, these named after R.A.F. Squadrons in recognition of their War effort.

Construction continued after Bulleid had left for Ireland, and into Nationalisation; in all 110 examples were built, split between the 'West Country' and 'Battle of Britain' naming. The last class member 34110 '66 Squadron' was completed in 1951.  The specification was identical, excepting that the last 40 locomotives cosmetically had
9' 0" wide cabs, and larger 5500 Gallon tenders.

Perhaps famously, several Bulleid light pacifics performed very well in the post-Nationalisation locomotive exchanges of 1948.  On this occasion the cream of locomotives from the four companies were run on 'foreign metals' over the summer months, so their characteristics could be compared.  Representing the Southern Region, the Bulleid light pacifics proved to be the sensation of the trials, 34006 'Bude' being a particular star performer, excelling on the Manchester-Marylebone and Bristol-Taunton-Plymouth routes.

In recognition of 60 years since the formation of British Railways, and of the locomotive exchanges, in 2008 Hornby released a limited edition model of 34006 'Bude'.  The model is paired with a black Stanier tender which was adopted during the trials to allow the use of water troughs on other railway regions.

Interestingly, at the time 'Bude' was nominated for naming, the local Council was approached for permission to use their official Coat-of-Arms, but they didn't actually have one; so one was designed specifically for the purpose, and is still in use today.   34006 visited the town of Bude just once, on 1 Nov 1945 for the official naming ceremony, running tender first as she was too big for the turntable.   While one Coat-of-Arms is in the town museum, the other 'Bude' enamel plaque depicting the town Coat-of-Arms, complete with its original brass surround from 21C106 / 34006 in excellent original condition, (overall size 20" x 22"), was sold at auction in April 2006 for £19,000 !

Following Nationalisation many of the light pacifics were rebuilt - in the same manner as the Merchant Navy class - removing the air-smoothed casing and troublesome enclosed valve gear.  However, with dieselisation on the horizon, only about half the class were altered, examples like 34006 keeping their original form until scrapping.  In all, 43 'West County' and 17 'Battle of Britain' class locos had been rebuilt by the end of the programme in May 1961; the last to be outshopped was 34104 'Bere Alston'.

The U.K. was the last Country to see 100 mph steam running, (unofficially), probably by SR Bulleid pacifics: ending on 10th July 1967 when all Southern Railway steam was withdrawn.

Fortunately quite a few 'light pacifics' survive in preservation, but in varying states of repair.  In December 2006 unrebuilt No. 34007 'Wadebridge' was put back into steam for the first time since scrapping.  On 14th September 2008 restored Manston pulled it's first passenger train on the Swanage Railway, and this month also saw the return to traffic of No. 34046 'Braunton' after restoration by the West Somerset Railway; on 20 Jan 2007 the fire had been lit for the first time in 41 years !

But considering this was Bulleid's numerically largest class, live steam models of 'light pacifics' are relatively rare, and I've only tracked down a handful in passenger hauling sizes, most under construction.  This is a potentially ambitious locomotive to build, and there are currently no commercially available drawings for the light Pacifics.  So, the small number of examples constructed are a great credit to their builders, often built from Works drawings.

Can't find the time to build a big one ?  For a fix of real steam in the garden, the limited run Aster air-smoothed Pacific (assembled or kit) is available to those with a deep pocket.  But it is a good looking and fairly well constructed true three cylinder locomotive with many of the essential controls found on larger steam models.

Failing that, if building one is not an option, perhaps consider the '00' models by Hornby - both the 'original' and recently released 'rebuilt' West Country model are excellent representations.