In 1901, after a technical education at Accrington Grammar School, he joined the Great Northern Railway (GNR) at Doncaster at the age of 18, as an apprentice under Henry Ivatt, the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME).

He was able to travel widely in Europe, later including a trip with Nigel Gresley, William Stanier and Frederick Hawksworth, to Belgium, in 1934, to see a metre-gauge bogie locomotive.

The First World War intervened; Bulleid joined the British Army and was assigned to the rail transport arm, rising to the rank of Major.

In 1937, Bulleid accepted the post of CME of the Southern Railway (SR) at an annual salary of £3,000, after Richard Maunsell retired.

In 1938, Bulleid gained approval to build the Merchant Navy class of modern 4-6-2 "Pacifics", undoubtedly inspired by Gresley but also drawing on his experiences from across Europe and with all the most modern equipment: a partially welded boiler and firebox rather than traditional rivetted designs, thermic syphons and a high-pressure boiler.

It also included chain-driven valve-gear immersed in an oil bath, a feature that was controversial and later caused problems if not maintained properly, which was difficult, due to conditions, after WW2.

had long felt that it was not ideal to have working parts exposed to the elements, where they were subject to all the dirt thrown up from the track.

All steam locomotives designed by Bulleid for the SR had his BFB disc wheels, which gave more even tyre support.

This did not eliminate the need for balance weights, but the set-up of the Bulleid valve gear enabled a locomotive with no hammer blow.

When the locomotives were rebuilt with Walschaerts valve gear, balance weights were installed in the wheels to reduce hammer blow.

Towards the end of his tenure at the SR, he was responsible for the design and construction of Britain's only double-deck passenger trains, the two units of the 4DD class.

They were popular with the travelling public, and many of the design features such as the size and layout were used by British Railways for their standard Mark I passenger coaches.