David Maidment - Southern Railway

SOUTHERN RAILWAY

MAUNSELL MOGULS & TANK LOCOMOTIVE CLASSES

MAUNSELL MOGULS & TANK LOCOMOTIVE CLASSES

DAVID MAIDMENT

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

Pen & Sword Transport

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire - Philadelphia

Copyright David Maidment 2018

ISBN 978 1 52673 213 2

eISBN 978 1 52673 214 9

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52673 215 6

The right of David Maidment to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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All David Maidments royalties from this book will be donated to the Railway Children charity [reg. no. 1058991] [ www.railwaychildren.org.uk ]

Other books by David Maidment:

Novels (Religious historical fiction)

The Child Madonna, Melrose Books, 2009

The Missing Madonna, PublishNation, 2012

The Madonna and her Sons, PublishNation, 2015

Novels (Railway fiction)

Lives on the Line, Max Books, 2013

Non-fiction (Railways)

The Toss of a Coin, PublishNation, 2014

A Privileged Journey, Pen and Sword, 2015

An Indian Summer of Steam, Pen and Sword, 2015

Great Western Eight-Coupled Heavy Freight Locomotives, Pen and Sword, 2015

Great Western Moguls and Prairies, Pen and Sword, 2016

Southern Urie and Maunsell 2-cylinder 4-6-0s, Pen and Sword, 2016

Great Western Small-Wheeled Double-Framed 4-4-0s, Pen & Sword, 2017

The Development of the German Pacific Locomotive, Pen & Sword, 2017

Great Western Large-Wheeled Double-Framed 4-4-0s, Pen & Sword, 2017

Great Western Counties, 4-4-0s, 4-4-2Ts & 4-6-0s, Pen & Sword, 2018

Non-fiction (Street Children)

The Other Railway Children, PublishNation, 2012

Nobody ever listened to me, PublishNation, 2012

Cover photo:

Rebuilt River 31790, formerly 2-6-4T No.790 of 1917, at Tonbridge shed, 26 July 1959. Colin Boocock

Back cover:

Three-cylinder N1 31876 leaving Tonbridge with a stopping passenger train for Ashford,17 August 1957. Ken Wightman

W 2-6-4 freight tank, 31912, at Hither Green, 9 May 1959. R.C. Riley

32135, built as E1 0-6-0T No.135 Foligno in 1879, rebuilt in November 1928 as an E1/R 0-6-2T, at Exmouth Junction, 5 July 1957. R.C. Riley

T his is the tenth book I have written for my publishers, Pen & Sword, and the eighth in the Locomotive Portfolio series, five covering my knowledge and experience of Great Western locomotives and the German railway pacifics. This is the second of three of my series on Maunsells designs for the South Eastern & Chatham and Southern Railways. Having in the previous and forthcoming two books covered his main passenger locomotives (apart from the Lord Nelsons, a class I am wary to document as my own experience of them as a regular commuter was less than flattering!), I am now turning my attention to the less glamorous but ubiquitous mixed traffic classes, in particular his N and U moguls and their three cylinder developments, the N1s and U1s.

The U 6ft diameter coupled wheel engines were developed from Maunsells controversial K 2-6-4 tank engines intended for express passenger use between London and the Kent and Sussex Coasts, which were known as the Rivers, and the three-cylinder version, A890 River Frome, from which the U1s were derived. As is relatively well known, the complaints of roughriding and rolling of these tank engines at speed, culminating in the disastrous derailment of A800 near Sevenoaks in August 1927, caused the SR Board to authorise their rebuilding as mogul tender engines, despite the fact that the Inquiry and tests elsewhere pointed to the state of the track as the most significant cause of the problems. The moguls were the Southern Railways main freight locomotives on the South Eastern and Central Divisions and remained so until dieselisation arrived in the early 1960s. They also dominated secondary passenger services throughout the Southern Railway and its BR successor. I include, as in some of my past books, some of my personal experiences with these engines, especially during my schooldays near the Redhill-Guildford-Reading line where they were the mainstay power and later, some continuing contact with them during the late 1950s when I was commuting to London University daily from my home in Woking.

I am also including short paragraphs and photographs of the Maunsell moguls built by Woolwich Arsenal after the First World War which were subsequently bought by the Great Southern Railway of Ireland and converted to 5ft 3in gauge and the Metropolitan Railway who had them rebuilt as 2-6-4Ts but in the light of the River experience purely for freight working. As this is a book about Maunsells tank engines also, Im including the W 2-6-4Ts which were really a freight version of the River tank and similar in many ways to the Metropolitan engines and the Z 0-8-0T of 1929 built by Maunsell for heavy shunting until the diesel shunter made development of the design unnecessary. Lastly, I cannot ignore, given the title of the book, Maunsells rebuilding of the LB&SCR E 0-6-0T as class E1/R 0-6-2T for specific work on the Southern Railways West of England branch duties. I finish with a very brief look at the BR Standard locomotives which took over the duties of the Maunsell engines at the end of steam on the Region, engines which had many of the characteristics of the engines they replaced.

I owe so many thanks, as usual, to all those who have helped me put this book together. The sources of my research are listed in the bibliography, especially the RCTS volumes on the engines of the SE&CR. For those who wish for a more detailed technical survey than I have given here, I recommend those authoritative volumes. I owe much also to the photographers and owners of photographic collections who have allowed me to use their images free of charge or at reduced publication fees as once more Im donating all the royalties from the book to the Railway Children charity ( www.railwaychildren.org.uk ) which I founded in 1995, and is now, according to a senior United Nations Officer, the largest charity in the world that works exclusively for street children. I have attempted to trace all copyright holders, but if I have missed anyone please contact me via the publisher.