Operational Details
With their 21 × 28 inch cylinders allied with 6 ft 0 in driving wheels and a free-steaming boiler they proved to be excellent workhorses. General overhauls revealed that they were very well built. When 30487 was stripped down for general repairs in 1954 it was found that the frames showed little sign of forty years of hard graft. During their careers they were used on fast, heavy freights, and were particularly familiar around Okehampton hauling stone trains.
The Drummond F13 rebuild were notable for having very tall cabs, requiring footplate staff shorter than 6 foot in height to stand on improvised stools to reach some controls. This resulted in those class members with this feature being nicknamed 'Cathedrals'. This nickname does not seem to have been applied to the rest of the class, although crews from Guildford depot referred to the others as the 'City Breed'. All members of the class had been withdrawn by 1961 as a result of the BR 1955 Modernisation Plan, and no locomotives survived into preservation.
Read more about this topic: LSWR H15 Class
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