Faced by the need to construct a new class of express passenger locomotive for the Southern Railway's top-link services from London to Dover and to the southwest, the railway's then CME, Richard Maunsell, developed the 4-6-0 ‘LN' class. When the first of the new type emerged from Eastleigh Works in 1926, No 850 Lord Nelson was described by the SR as the most powerful passenger engine in Britain. In obtaining this accolade, Maunsell's design was something of a triumph; restricted by the Civil Engineer's department to an axle loading of no more than 21 tons — the earlier and significantly less powerful ‘King Arthur' class had a loading of 20 tons 4cwt — whilst using four cylinders rather than the earlier class's two, Maunsell was radical in his desire to remove as much extraneous weight as possible. In this he was remarkably successful as the prototype locomotive ended up weighing 15cwt less than his original estimates! Following two years of testing, a further batch of 15 locomotives was constructed at Eastleigh during 1928 and 1929. Although powerful, the ‘Lord Nelson' class was not the most successful of Maunsell's designs, perhaps as a result of the much larger grate area in the firebox, with the result that only 16 were constructed. Despite this, however, the type gave sterling service to the Southern Railway and Southern Region for more than three decades — indeed during the period when Bulleid's Pacifics were proving troublesome the type had to deputies for the newer locomotives — until electrification of the Kent Coast main line and the rapid elimination of steam resulted in their withdrawal by the end of 1962.
In his third contribution to Ian Allan Publishing's ‘Locomotives in Detail' series, Peter Swift, whose earlier contributions to the series on the ‘Schools' and ‘King Arthur' classes have been well received by readers and critics alike, turns his attention to this small but important class of express passenger locomotive. Providing the reader with a comprehensive account of the class's development and the modifications undertaken to it over the years as well as its operational record, the comprehensive text is supplemented by a remarkable range of both color and mono photographs as well as 4mm scale line drawings, to provide the reader with a definitive guide to one of Maunsell's most important designs of locomotive.
Whilst the ‘Lord Nelson' class was not constructed in large numbers, its place in the history of British steam locomotive design is assured; it represented a major move forward in power and in terms of building a top-link express passenger locomotive within strict weight restrictions. The latest in the ‘Locomotive in Detail' series pays tribute to the class; the book will be required reading for all students of Southern Railway locomotive history and to all those who model the Southern Railway/Region from the late 1920s through to the early 1960s.