Schools class

[NXEA!]

Gents, a question for you all which I was pondering earlier - why were the Schools class withdrawn so early? I've often thought they would've been perfect for the North Cornwall lines post-1962, replacing the lovely but antiquitated Drummond T9's, pottering on short trains on steep gradients with ample power as opposed to using Light Pacifics which always seemed like overkill to me. Also IIRC some Schools were overhauled as late as 1960, so I've always wondered why the best 10-20 weren't cascaded away or kept on and the rest withdrawn.

 

Thanks in advance!

[asmay2002]

Gents, a question for you all which I was pondering earlier - why were the Schools class withdrawn so early? I've often thought they would've been perfect for the North Cornwall lines post-1962, replacing the lovely but antiquitated Drummond T9's, pottering on short trains on steep gradients with ample power as opposed to using Light Pacifics which always seemed like overkill to me. Also IIRC some Schools were overhauled as late as 1960, so I've always wondered why the best 10-20 weren't cascaded away or kept on and the rest withdrawn.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

21 ton axleload so far too heavy for branch lines.  30 years or so old so due for the gas axe anyway.

[Mallard60022]

Gents, a question for you all which I was pondering earlier - why were the Schools class withdrawn so early? I've often thought they would've been perfect for the North Cornwall lines post-1962, replacing the lovely but antiquitated Drummond T9's, pottering on short trains on steep gradients with ample power as opposed to using Light Pacifics which always seemed like overkill to me. Also IIRC some Schools were overhauled as late as 1960, so I've always wondered why the best 10-20 weren't cascaded away or kept on and the rest withdrawn.

 

Thanks in advance!

Excellent question and sadly one that could be asked of many classes from all over the Country! There were 'younger' Standard designs that fitted the bill better, especially the 2.6.2 and 2.6.4. Tanks (latterly). Also don't forget that the SR in the far west was under WR control by 63! No chance of steam such as this being seen as useful sadly!

P

[Forester]

I think it's much more surprising the Schools survived beyond 1959.

Built mainly for the difficult Hastings line and displaced by the Hastings diesels, they had been worked to death really.

The Hastings line in those days was a mini Somerset & Dorset but with worse track.

 

Fantastic locos, though. You knew one was on the front the moment you started moving. They didn't hang about.

[RFS]

The Hastings dieselisation in 1958, and the Kent Coast electrification phases in 1959 and 1961, not only displaced the Schools class, but also King Arthurs, Nelsons, numerous Bulleid Pacifics and quite a few BR standards, many of which were only a few years old. And by 1962 the SR also had 98 class 33 diesels too, so there was really no work left for them.  All had gone by the end of 1962 together with all the Arthurs and Nelsons. Sad to see them all go so quickly but that's progress for you.  Even the Bulleid Pacifics started to go in mid-1963.

[Mallard60022]

By 'go' do you mean scrapped? If so I hate to be a pedant but I'm fairly sure some Arthurs lasted into '63.

Phil

[Fenman]

...they had been worked to death really. ... Fantastic locos, though. You knew one was on the front the moment you started moving. They didn't hang about.

 

I'm always surprised when you read about Schools Class engines standing-in for turns rostered for Pacifics that had failed, yet managing to keep to time. There's no disputing their power but they must have been flogged to death.

 

Paul

[30851]

Somewhere I read that the accounting rules of the time restricted how many engines could be scrapped per month. So after the Kent electrification etc. the Southern had a lot more steam engines than they needed but they couldn't get rid of them for a long time. Hence a lot of engines from the Eastern section were transferred over to the western section to wait for their final call. Most of them, of course, would have little to do as there were so many pacifics and standards available. In Dec 62 a different set of accounting rules took place on the creation of BRB - get rid of as much as you can to make some other figure look good. Then the winter of 62/63 took place which forced its own set of rules about the use of steam engines....

 

Rob

[RFS]

By 'go' do you mean scrapped? If so I hate to be a pedant but I'm fairly sure some Arthurs lasted into '63.

Phil

The last Arthur to go was 30770 in November 1962.   As 30851 mentions above, the new accounting rules meant there was a mass cull at the end of 1962, but probably most of the engines had been in store for sometime already.  Details of all withdrawal dates are here -

 

http://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=class&id=313901&type=S&page=alloc

[Mallard60022]

The last Arthur to go was 30770 in November 1962.   As 30851 mentions above, the new accounting rules meant there was a mass cull at the end of 1962, but probably most of the engines had been in store for sometime already.  Details of all withdrawal dates are here -

 

http://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=class&id=313901&type=S&page=alloc

Yes, of course they were all withdrawn by the end of '62, I should engage head before speaking.

Thanks also for that link; not encountered that before and useful, (but sad of course). 

P