West Country Class Bulleid Pacific 34046 'Braunton'

34046 was built at Brighton and entered service on 14th November 1946. It was named BRAUNTON in January 1949. Until 1958 the loco worked services between London, Brighton, Salisbury, Exeter and Ilfracombe. Along with other members of the class, the locomotive was extensively redesigned at Eastleigh by British Railways in 1959, losing the air-smoothed casing and the chain drive. After this date it was allocated to Bournemouth shed and ran mostly between Waterloo and Weymouth and also over the Somerset and Dorset line between Bath and Bournemouth. During the loco’s career it hauled many prestigious named trains such as the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’, the ‘Pines Express’ and on one occasion in 1959, a Royal Train. 34046 was withdrawn from service on 10th October 1965 after accumulating nearly 779,210miles. From 1966 until 1988 the locomotive lay rotting in Woodham’s Scrapyard, Barry, South Wales. It was rescued and moved to Brighton where an abortive attempt was made to restore the loco, by now in a deplorable state with many parts missing, to running condition. In 1996 it was purchased initially by the West Somerset Railway Association (and latterly sold on to a private individual who has funded the restoration) and moved to the Association’s engineering base at Williton on the West Somerset Railway. Thereafter followed a long restoration which has now reached it’s conclusion. The few original parts to survive ie. the boiler, frames and wheels have been refurbished and many new parts have been manufactured from the original engineering drawings. Parts from other members of the class (13 in total), have also been sourced and fitted to the loco. Over 100 people have contributed to the restoration, under the leadership of Gareth Winter. The loco has been restored to a standard which will allow it to work on the main line network once again.
Although it can never visit its namesake home town again, it will carry the name and town crest of Braunton wherever it goes.

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