This locomotive was built at the Southern Railway's works at Brighton in 1946. One of a class which eventually numbered 110 locomotives, collectively known as the light pacifics. The members of the class were named after West Country locations, the West Country class, and also after RAF air squadrons, fighters and personalities involved with the RAF and its war effort, the Battle of Britain class. The locomotives were visually smaller versions of the Merchant Navy class, which were built at the Southern Railway's works at Eastleigh between 1941 and 1949. Although all the Merchant Navy class were rebuilt, with the most obvious sign being the removal of the air smoothed casing, only 60 of the light pacifics were rebuilt.
All members of the class were designed by Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid, the chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway and all were characterised by the distinctive air smoothed casing over the boiler.
Blackmoor Vale was built to order number 2561, dated 28 September 1944 at a cost of £17,160 and entered traffic in February 1946. The locomotive was painted in the distinctive Southern Railway's livery of Malachite green with three horizontal yellow stripes and fitted with a 4,500 gallon tender, No. 3273 and boiler No. 1279 and was initially numbered 21C123 in the Bulleid numbering system. It also had the characteristic Southern smokebox roundel with the date of construction, 1946, below the word Southern.
In April 1948, after the formation of British Railways, the locomotive was renumbered into the Southern Railway's classification as 34023 still with the distinctive Southern roundel on the smokebox and with the lettering BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender sides. The locomotive lost the Malachite green livery in April 1950 when based at Salisbury and was repainted in Brunswick green in April 1950 with two orange and black lines replacing the upper and lower yellow lines of the earlier livery. The first BR lion and wheel emblem appeared on the tender, replacing the British Railways lettering. At the same the name was altered to Blackmore Vale.
To improve the visibility from the cab the front of the cab was modified to a Vee shape and three side windows were fitted, a modification carried out in October 1954. Other modifications appeared on the locomotive over the next ten years, including the resiting of the safety valves from the front of the boiler to the rear of the boiler and reducing the valves to two in number.
The tenders of the locomotives were cut down by removal of the tall tender sides (raves) to assist water filling and coal replenishment. Blackmore Vale's tender was modified in February 1962 when she was fitted with tender number 3311. In September 1964 the locomotive worked the Padstow portion of the last up Atlantic Coast Express.
With the impending end of steam on British Railways in July 1967, a group of drivers and their colleagues from Nine Elms, the motive power depot near Waterloo, had formed the Bulleid Preservation Society in 1966 to purchase a Bulleid Pacific. Initially the two Battle of Britain class pacifics No. 34066, Spitfire and No. 34086, 219 Squadron were considered suitable locomotives. However with the end of steam in July 1967, West Country Class Pacifics No. 34023, Blackmore Vale and No. 34102, Lapford were the only unrebuilt Bulleid pacifics remaining in traffic. No. 34023, Blackmore Vale was the locomotive purchased as it was considered to be the most mechanically sound.
The engine and tender were purchased for £1,900 and the locomotive transferred to Longmoor, the site of the Longmoor Military Railway. BR stated on the bill of sale that 'No Guarantee can be given as to the condition and suitability for future use'.
With the closure of Longmoor in 1970, the Society, now called the Bulleid Society Ltd. found a new home at Liss on the short lived Longmoor Steam Railway. Another move occurred in September 1971 with the closure of the Longmoor Steam railway. No. 34023 was moved by rail to Haywards Heath and then by low loader to the Bluebell, which has been her home ever since. Five years later, in May 1976, No. 21C123, Blackmoor Vale returned to traffic on the Bluebell, resplendent in Malachite green. She was repainted in Brunswick green in 1984, her final BR livery, with additional cosmetic work being undertaken to give the locomotive the '1967' appearance. She was withdrawn from traffic in 1985. Her tender was lent to Battle of Britain class pacific No. 34072, 257 Squadron and was used with the locomotive on the Swanage Railway.
The locomotive was has been overhaul and a new tender body built in the Bluebell's Workshop, returning to traffic in August 2000.
