Southern N class Mogul research

[Steve Carter]

Does anyone have a copy of the book published by Irwell Press entitled “The book of the SOUTHERN MOGULS, Part One: N, N1 classes” by Ian Sixsmith & Richard Derry?

The works history for each loco is listed and I have obtained some details for an N class, 31405. However, the works information contains what appear to be codes and the source of my original information is no longer available to me.

So, if anyone can decipher the following I will be very grateful. I am looking to understand the meaning of the capital letters after the dates and the numbers in the second column.

28/2/51 - 22/3/51 HC 76,188
7/5/51 NC
25/7/51 - 3/8/51 LC 85,522 No boiler work
9/9/52 - 26/9/52 LI 114,098 34 small tubes ‘Tubes Ltd’
3/12/54 - 22/12/54 HI - LI 174,525
9/2/56 - 17/2/56 LC 205,588 No boiler work
15/2/57 - 9/3/57 GO 234,677 Front end conversion & major work

Boiler changes also took place in February 1948 and March 1951.

I aim to portray this loco as in Summer 1955 so am particularly looking at livery changes for this loco in BR days. I have found out that this loco was numbered s1405 with BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender in February 1948.

It was painted in unlined black, renumbered 31405 (10 inch Gill Sans in straw) with a blank tender in November 1949. I have a photo of the engine in April 1954 that shows, I think as the loco is very dirty, it in this same condition.

Another photo shows the loco in October 1956, again in a filthy state, and the caption reads “... with traces of BRITISH RAILWAYS still on the filthy tender. This would finally disappear in the course of a General repair the following year.”

Is anyone able to help please?

Thank you in anticipation.

Steve

[Rod Cameron]

Hi Steve

Presumably the H and L are 'heavy' and 'light', as in 'heavy intermediate' and 'light intermediate'.

[Noel]

So far as I know the letter codes are
NC - not classified [either something trivial, or no work was done, probably the latter here].

LI - light intermediate, HI heavy intermediate {planned maintenance work where the loco is called into works based on the shed reports of its condition or a fixed mileage. The works would have a lists of things to be attended to for each, but both would normally involve less work than a general overhaul].

LC - light casual, HC - heavy casual [Usually unplanned visits due to a failure or accident damage that the shed couldn't deal with. Again classified by the work involved].

GO - I assume a general overhaul [Everything except the cab and frames is dismantled and distributed to the various specialist shops. The loco is then rebuilt using new or overhauled parts some, all or none of which had been part of the loco previously. A change of tender would not be unusual, but could occur at any visit, especially if it was the tender that had a problem rather than the loco itself].

The following numbers are possibly the estimated mileage since the last works visit, although some look rather high for this; possibly they are the cumulative totals, although then they seem rather low. The dates for the 1954 visit, incidentally, contain an error.

[Steve Carter]

Thanks for the responses Rod and Noel.

Making more sense now.

I’ve corrected the 1954 dates, should have been 3/12/54 - 22/12/54, my typo!

According to the records I’ve found so far, this loco had Tender No. 3071 from new.

Steve