LSWR N15 Class - Operational Details

Operational Details

The N15 class was intended to haul heavy expresses over the long LSWR mainlines between Waterloo, Weymouth, Exeter and Plymouth. Locomotives were changed at Salisbury before the upgrading of the South Western Mainline in 1922, when fast running through to Exeter was possible. The Southern Railway's motive power re-organisation following the Grouping of 1923 saw the class allocated to sheds across the network and used on Bournemouth to Oxford cross-country trains. Operations were expanded to more restricted Central and Eastern section mainlines in 1925, and suitably modified class members hauled commuter and heavy boat trains from Victoria to Dover Marine and expresses to Brighton. In 1931, No. E780 Sir Persant hauled the inaugural Bournemouth Belle Pullman train from Waterloo to Bournemouth West.

In peacetime, the class was occasionally used on fast freights from Southampton Docks, although it was common to see them at the head of freight and troop trains during the Second World War. Ten "Urie Arthurs" were transferred to the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) in October 1942, and were based at Heaton shed for use on freight and occasional passenger trains in the north east and southern Scotland. They returned to the Southern Railway in July 1943 after the introduction of United States Army Transportation Corps S160 class 2-8-0s into service. From 1945 the King Arthur class regularly deputised for Bulleid’s new Pacifics, which were experiencing poor serviceability due to mechanical failures. The entire class came into British Railways ownership in 1948: they could be found in most areas of the Southern Region on medium-length expresses and stopping trains on the ex-LSWR mainline.