21C151 Winston Churchill is a Southern Railway Battle of Britain class 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive that has been preserved as part of the United Kingdom's National Collection. It is on display at the Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon. Career 21C151 was built at Brighton Works in 1946, being released to traffic on 30 December of that year. Initially it was unnamed and paired with tender 3301. It was first allocated to Salisbury locomotive shed for services on the West of England Main Line between London and Exeter. Naming 21C151 was officially named Winston Churchill in a ceremony at Waterloo railway station on 11 September 1947. The former prime minister, by then Leader of the Opposition, was offered the chance to name the locomotive, but turned it down, claiming a prior engagement. The locomotive was named by Lord Dowding, who also named his own eponymous locomotive at the same ceremony. Churchill was the only person to decline the opportunity to name a Battle of Britain class locomotive after himself. Modifications In July/August 1947 it had its original flat-front cab altered to a more streamlined wedge-shaped, with a larger front window. It passed to British Railways in January 1948 as part of nationalisation of Britain's railways. However it was October 1948 before it received its British Railways number 34051. It also kept its Southern Railway malachite green with chrome yellow striping until November 1950 when it was repainted into British Railways Brunswick green. During an overhaul at Eastleigh Works in March 1949, 34051 swapped its tender (number 3301) for tender number 3280, formerly coupled to 21C128 Eddystone (tender 3301 was then attached to 34042 Dorchester). In February 1950, 34051 moved to Nine Elms locomotive shed in London, and continued to work the West of England Main Line, as well as the Waterloo to Weymouth line. In August that year it had another change of tenders, 3280, its old tender, going to 34065 Hurricane, while 34051 gained tender number 3316 (which 34067 Tangmere had had from new). It would keep this tender for the rest of its British Railways service. In April 1951 it was reallocated to Exmouth Junction shed, on the eastern outskirts of Exeter. Its opportunities to wander the network of branchlines west of Exeter known as 'The Withered Arm', were cut short when its allocation was changed to Salisbury only two months later. It stayed at Salisbury for