After the Second World War,
SNCF bought 77 S100s and designated them
class 030TU.
Jugoslovenske železnice (Yugoslav State Railways) bought many S100s and designated them
class 62. In the 1950s JŽ assembled more examples bringing the number of class 62 to 129. The
Hellenic State Railways in Greece acquired 20 S100s and designated them class
Δα (Delta-alpha).
Österreichische Bundesbahnen in Austria acquired 10 and designated them class 989.
Ferrovie dello Stato in Italy acquired four and designated them class 831. Several were sold into industrial use in the US, including to
Georgia Power and
Oklahoma Gas & Electric. The Oranje-Nassau Mijnen, a coal mining company in The Netherlands acquired two S100s, former USATC no.s 4389 (Davenport 2533) and 1948 (Davenport 2513), and renumbered them ON-26 and ON-27 respectively. ON-26 remains preserved on the Stoomtrein Goes-Borsele tourist railway. Other S100s entered British industrial use with the
National Coal Board,
Longmoor Military Railway,
Austin Motor Company and others. China acquired about 20 S100s, designating them class XK2. In 1946,
Egyptian State Railways bought eight and numbered them 1151–1158. The UK
War Department loaned six to
Palestine Railways. In 1946 PR bought two of these, both of which subsequently entered the stock of
Israel Railways in 1948.
Iraqi State Railways bought five, designated them Class SA, and gave them fleet numbers 1211–1215. All five were Davenport-built examples. At least two were still in service in March 1967: 1211 at
Basrah and 1214 as the station pilot at Baghdad West.
Southern Railway The
Southern Railway (UK) bought 15 S100s (14 for operational use and one for spare parts) and designated them
USA Class. They were purchased and adapted to replace the
LSWR B4 class then working in
Southampton Docks. SR staff nicknamed them "Yank Tanks". By 1946 the SR needed either to renew or replace the ageing
B4,
D1 and
E1 class tanks used in
Southampton Docks, but
Eastleigh Works was not in a position to do so in a timely manner or at an economic price. The replacement locomotives would need to have a short
wheelbase to negotiate the tight curves found in the dockyard, but be able to haul heavy goods trains as well as full-length passenger trains in the harbour area. The railway's
Chief mechanical engineer,
Oliver Bulleid therefore inspected the surplus War Department tank locomotives. The
Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST locomotives stored at the
Longmoor Military Railway proved to be unsuitable for dock work because of their wheelbase and inside cylinders; also many of the survivors were in poor condition. However, the S100s stored at
Newbury Racecourse had a wheelbase, outside cylinders and had hardly been used. Those available for sale had been built by the
Vulcan Iron Works of
Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania and
H. K. Porter, Inc, of
Pittsburgh. Bulleid therefore took Vulcan-built locomotive WD4236 on approval in May 1946 and tested it thoroughly over the next few months. When it was found to be suitable, this locomotive and a further thirteen were purchased in 1947 for £2500 each. They served there until being replaced by
BR class 07 diesel shunters in 1962.
Construction and adaptation Following purchase, members of the class were fitted with steam heating, vacuum ejectors, sliding cab windows, additional lamp irons and new cylinder drain cocks. Further modifications became necessary once the locomotives started to enter traffic, including large roof-top ventilators, British-style regulators (as built they had US-style pull-out ones), three rectangular cab-front lookout windows, extended coal bunkers, separate steam and vacuum brake controls and wooden
tip-up seats. This meant that it took until November 1947 for the entire class to be ready for work. Radio-telephones were later installed on the footplate to improve communication on the vast network of sidings at Southampton. The class was allocated the
British Railways (BR)
power classification 3F following nationalisation in 1948.
Numbering The original locomotive carried the War Department number 4326, and the subsequent purchase were numbered between 1264 and 1284 and between 1952 and 1973. Thirteen of the locomotives were re-numbered in a single sequence from 61 to 73 by SR but 4326 retained its War Department number. The locomotive used for spares was not numbered. After 1948 they were renumbered 30061–30074 by BR. Six examples were transferred to
departmental (non-revenue earning) use in 1962/3 and renumbered DS233–DS238.
Livery During the Second World War they were painted USATC black with white numbering and lettering 'Transportation Dept.' on the tank sides. Prior to nationalisation, the locomotives were painted in Southern black livery with 'Southern' in "Sunshine Yellow" lettering. The lettering on the tank sides was changed to 'British Railways' during 1948 as a transitional measure. Finally, in the mid 1960s several of the class were painted in a malachite livery (the green of the old Southern), with BR crests on the water tank sides and numbers on the cab sides.
Operational details For fifteen years the entire class was used for
shunting and carriage and van heating in
Southampton Docks. They performed well and were popular with the footplatemen, but the limited bunker capacity often necessitated the provision of relief engines for some of the longer duties. Two examples were fitted with extended bunkers to address this problem in 1959 and 1960, but a more ambitious plan to extend the frames and build larger bunkers was abandoned in 1960 due to the imminent dieselization of the docks. They also often suffered from overheated
axle boxes which was less of a problem when shunting but prevented them from being used on longer journeys. A more serious issue was the condition of the steel
fireboxes originally fitted to the class which rusted and fatigued quickly. This was partly due to their construction under conditions of austerity, and the
hard water present in the docks. This came to a head in 1951 when several had to be laid aside until new fireboxes could be constructed. Thereafter there were no further problems. The class was replaced from their shunting duties at Southampton from 1962 by
British Rail Class 07 diesel-electric shunters, when the first member of the class was withdrawn, but the remainder were still in fairly good condition. The survivors were used for informal departmental purposes such as providing steam heating at Southampton or shunting at
Eastleigh Motive Power Depot, before the withdrawal. 30072 became the shed pilot locomotive at Guildford Motive Power Depot in 1963, replacing a B4. Although malachite painted 30064 was substituted in 1964 it soon returned to Eastleigh, later having a short spell at
Meldon Quarry near Okehampton (August - October 1966) when it was the last steam locomotive active on the Western Region. No. 30072
Stock list ==Postwar design influence==