34073 249 Squadron

34073 was built at Brighton May 1948 and initially it worked from Ramsgate, but soon afterwards it was re-allocated to Stewarts Lane, Battersea, and then to Dover by early 1949 to work Continental trains and other services to the coast such as the Man of Kent business express from Charing Cross to Margate. In 1952 it took part in haulage trials between Dover and Chiselhurst to compare the performance of Battle of Britain, Merchant Navy and the new Britannia class pacifics.

BR motive power depot allocations since 1948.

Date Arrived	Depot
January 1948	Ramsgate
December 1948	Dover Marine
May 1961	Nine Elms
December 1963	Eastleigh

It was withdrawn in June 1964 and stored until in 1965 it was towed to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry. It remained there until 1988 and was the last Battle of Britain class locomotive to leave. It was taken to Brighton for the Brighton Railway Museum project at the Pullman works but plans did not work out and the locomotive sold to John Bunch and moved on to the Mid Hants Railway. Here it resided whilst consideration as to what to do with it were made.

In 2006 it moved to the East Lancs Railway after being bought by Ian Riley. At that time Riley had a stake in 34067 Tangmere and 34073 donated donate parts of its valve gear to that locomotive which had suffered a catastrophic failure while hauling a mainline excursion, causing its valve gear oil-bath to be punctured whilst running on the main line.

34073 249 Squadron is currently stored at Carnforth after being moved from Bury in February 2014. Carnforth is the base for the West Coast Railway Company Limited, trading as West Coast Railways. It is possible that 34073 will continue to be used as parts for Tangmere unless there is a plan to finally restore it.

The boiler was believed to be in a relatively good condition and was fitted to class mate 34067 Tangmere whilst the latter was overhauled during 2021.