Operational Assessment and Preservation
The N class was the first to combine Churchward design principles with the best practices of other railways; it was an important step in the development of the British 2-6-0, providing inspiration for the LMS Hughes Crab of 1926 and subsequent Maunsell designs. The locomotives were well received by crews, who nicknamed them "Woolworths", because the majority were fabricated from cheaply produced parts from Woolwich. The robustness and reliability of the design ensured that their sphere of operation was expanded to cover most of the Southern Railway network. The utility of the N class as capable mixed-traffic locomotives ensured their continued use until withdrawal in 1966.
One member of the class is preserved, No. 31874, which was rescued in March 1974 from the Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. One of the "Woolwich" batch, this locomotive was bought and restored for use on the Mid-Hants Railway; it was steamed for the first time in preservation in 1977, and was operational at the railway's re-opening as a heritage attraction in April 1977. The locomotive was withdrawn in 1998 due to problems that require firebox reconstruction, and as of 2009 is stored pending overhaul.
Read more about this topic: SECR N Class
Famous quotes containing the words assessment and/or preservation:
“The first year was critical to my assessment of myself as a person. It forced me to realize that, like being married, having children is not an end in itself. You don’t at last arrive at being a parent and suddenly feel satisfied and joyful. It is a constantly reopening adventure.”
—Anonymous Mother. From the Boston Women’s Health Book Collection. Quoted in The Joys of Having a Child, by Bill and Gloria Adler (1993)
“The bourgeois treasures nothing more highly than the self.... And so at the cost of intensity he achieves his own preservation and security. His harvest is a quiet mind which he prefers to being possessed by God, as he prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to that deathly inner consuming fire.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)