Post by Adseria on Feb 3, 2019 10:18:31 GMT -6
Before I start, all of the information in this post comes from Wikipedia, so if you don't like that, leave now. Also, I'm going to ignore any irrelevant changes (like changes to armour or armament) beyond their effect on speed, since that's the purpose of this discussion. Lastly, sorry for the wall of text. TL;DR at the bottom.
I believe the changes you were thinking of were indeed to the Queen Elizabeth class. Malaya had no refit in the interwar period, and the changes to Barham were relatively minor, so we'll ignore them. That leaves Queen Elizabeth, Warspite and Valiant.
Queen Elizabeth herself had 2 major refits in the interwar period. The first (1926-27) added bulges, and included minor changes to the superstructure and secondary armament. The second (1937-41) was much more comprehensive, and included major changes to the superstructure, secondary armament and armour protection, as well as the addition of a catapult and hangar. Unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn't give her post refit stats, but from what I've read, there's nothing to indicate she would have been faster. My guess would have been that, at best, she would have managed the same speed as before her refits.
Warspite had one major refit, from 1934-37. However, there is no mention of her being given torpedo bulges, so she's irrelevant to our discussion.
Valiant, like Queen Elizabeth, underwent 2 interwar refits. The first (1929-30) added torpedo bulges and increased her displacement by ~3000t. Once again, Wikipedia doesn't list her stats after this refit, and the second (1937-39) included changes to her propulsion, increasing her power. However, due to increase in displacement from other changes, her speed was reduced to 23.5 knots (her as-built speed was ~24 kts).
As you can see, Wikipedia isn't much help for this particular question. The most useful one was probably Valiant, being the one that a: had torpedo bulges added, and b: Wikipedia gives post-refit stats for, but the nature of refits themselves (IE being many simultaneous changes, rather than one big change) makes it hard to get accurate data on the exact effects of any single change on the overall characteristics of a ship.
Incidentally, for those of you who might be troubled by my use of Wikipedia, I realised that the above was effectively a wordy version of "I don't know" and tried some more extensive research (read: a quick Google search) for a more reliable/detailed source, and none of the ones I found gave any more detail than Wikipedia did.
TL;DR: I don't know, but I don't think this was a thing.