USATC S160 Class - British Deployment

British Deployment

800 locomotives were constructed in 1942/3 in thirteen batches, split between ALCO, Baldwin and Lima Locomotive Works. Shipped to South Wales and dispatched from the GWR locomotive depot at Newport, Ebbw Junction, the first 43 locomotives were transferred to the LNER works at Doncaster for completion, and later running in over the East Coast mainline to replace damaged stock. This started a pattern whereby each of the four British railway companies eventually deployed a total of 400 S160's under the guise of "running in," but factually replacing lost stock and increasing the capacity of the British railways system to allow for shipping of military pre-invasion equipment and troops. The eventual deployment of S160's were:

• 174 to the Great Western Railway
• 168 to the London and North Eastern Railway
• 50 to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
• 6 to the Southern Railway

The second batch of 400 S160's were prepared for storage by USATC personnel at Great Western locomotive depot Ebbw Junction, in the immediate run-up to D-Day. Post the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the locomotives deployed across Britain again began to collect and be refurbished at Ebbw Vale in preparation for shipment to Europe.