Wartime A1 to A3 conversions.

[DCB]

Reading a book on Gresley Locos by OS Nock published circa 1947 I was struck by the references to A1s as Pacifics and A3s as "Super Pacifics" rather than as a single class.  Further research (Wikipedia is wonderful) shows 30 A1s were renewed as A3s during WW2 and 12 more after the war.

As new boilers were required how on earth did the LNER wangle that one when the need was for Mixed Traffic locos?  They even scrapped the P1s to give their almost new boilers to A1s.   Was there some skulduggery similar to that which saw the NER Atlantics scrapped well before their mileage was up?

[slilley]

From what I have read on this, some of the early A1 boilers were getting old and needed replacing anyway, dont forget that over on the LMS the Royal Scots were getting rebuilt with new boilers and the like, far more drastic surgery than the A1 to A3 conversion.