Billinton

**Billinton** is a LB&SCR E2 that worked on the South Western Heritage Railway. Since 2017, he has been on static display.

This first section is called a lead. You'll want to fill it with the most important aspects of the character's life. Think about a newspaper article. Put the best stuff up front!

## Bio

### History

Billinton was built at Brighton works in 1915 and is one of ten E2 0-6-0T locomotives built by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) from 1913 to 1916. He was numbered 106 by the LB&SCR and was first painted Wartime black because World War One was happening. After the war, he was repainted to LB&SCR Umber Brown with yellow lining but lost the livery in 1923 to the Grouping Act by the British Government. The LB&SCR grouped with the South East and Chatham Railway (SE&CR) and London and South Western Railway (LSWR) to form the Southern Railway, or Southern/SR for short. All ex-LB&SCR locomotives had the prefix B (Brighton) at the start of their numbers, Billinton's became B106, later 2016. The Second World War caused Billinton to receive poor maintenance which caused his to run poorly.

At midnight of January the 1st in 1948, the "Big Four" railway companies (Southern, LMS, GWR and LNER) were grouped together to create British Railways and all Southern Region (ex-Southern Railway) had the number 3 added to their numbers, so Billinton's was 32106. After nearly 50 years of service on the line, Billinton was withdrawn from the line's roster and worked at Southampton Docks until withdrawn in 1962. Billinton was sent to Eastleigh to be scrapped

## Liveries

Billinton has been worn three liveries through the series:

* LB&SCR works grey (1983-1998)
* Southern Railway Wartime black (1998-2001)
* LB&SCR Wartime black (2001-present)

## Basis

Billinton is based on the real LB&SCR E2 No: 106, withdrawn from Southampton Docks in September 30th of 1962 and scrapped that same year at Eastleigh in October 31st.

## Trivia

Billinton was named after his designer, Lawson Billinton.

Billinton's number (32106/2016.B106/106) is a real number worn by a real E2.

According to the series, Billinton was found at Eastleigh scrapyard 21 years after he was withdrawn in 1962. The real 32106 was sent to Eastleigh scrapyard but it was scrapped that same year.

When Billinton is first restored to full working order, the LB&SCR work grey is applied, a livery that only original E2 No: 100 (BR 32100) wore in 1913.

Billinton is the only tank locomotive on the railway that is mainline certified, because of his air pump.

Billinton is seen as Ginvera Davis' favourite SWHR locomotive since she is the reason he is even preserved and was the real steam locomotive she ever saw as a child.

Billinton is seen as the flagship of the South Western Heritage Railway, being the only local locomotive saved for operation on his former line and the first SWHR steam locomotive operational on operating day 1.

In the first season, Billinton's boiler ticket was only one year and he had a cracked frame held by just a weld.

Billinton shares the same face design as as his surviving brother Thomas but both feature different eyebrows (Thomas has pointy, straight eyebrows while Billinton has curved eyebrows).

Billinton's model was originally going to be a reskinned SteamSoundSupreme E2 for Railworks but due to a switch to Blender, a separate model was created from scratch originally on 3D Builder before being rigged on Blender.

## Gallery

The real life E2 No. 32106Billinton's model during development on 3D Builder