The West Country/Battle of Britain Class (WC/BB) was to a design by Oliver Bullied, who had come from the LNER where the 4-6-2 wheel arrangement was normal for express and fast passenger trains. Until his arrival there has been no Pacific locomotives on the Southern Railway. His first design was the Merchant Navy Class but he needed lighter locomotives for many of the routes and the WC/BB Class was the result. The first of the class arrived in 1945 and the rebuilding of some them as more conventional looking locomotives was started by British Railways in 1957. Those for service in the eastern sector were given Battle of Britain names and the rest for use further west were named after places served by the Southern Railway. The last member of the class was withdrawn in 1967, however, a record 20 of the class have survived in preservation, thanks to the fact that many of them ended up at Barry scrapyard when decommissioned.