Part one appeared in Steam World December 2022, part two in January 2023, part three in February 2023 and part four in May 2023.
‘Nelsons’ and ‘Arthurs’
The 16 ‘Lord Nelson’ 4-6-0s, 74 Urie and Maunsell ‘King Arthur’ 4-6-0s and 40 ‘Schools’ 4-4-0s formed the backbone of SR steam power until the arrival of the Bulleid ‘Pacifics’, but even afterwards, the three types seemed to rarely stray from the SR other than on the Oxford route. Our 1960s review is of course severely limited by the very early withdrawal of the three Maunsell classes by 1962, the Urie variants having already gone by the end of the 1950s.
An interesting sighting of a Lord Nelson was No. 30862 Lord Collingwood, seen at Westbury in December 1961 on Fawley oil traffic. But ‘Nelsons’ on freight were rare, except in the final months, and rarer still off the South Western section.
On the passenger side, relatively few enthusiast specials were run with this famous class, compared with the number of Bulleidhauled specials of 1964-67. However,a few may be mentioned. The now-preserved No. 30850 worked a Paddington to Swindon enthusiast special on June 24 1962, the last summer of the surviving
