A question about the UK Southern Railway.

since you are the only people I know that know stuff about trains here is a non-trainz related question. Is there any difference between the SR West Country, Battle of Britain, and Merchant Navy class? (I know the WC class and BoB class are lighter than the MN class, but are there any noticeable differences?) Also what is the Difference between Urie/Maunsell's LSWR/SR H15, S15, N15 (King Arthur) and Lord Nelson class 4-6-0s?

-thanks, Joe

The West Country and Battle of Britain classes are exactly the same, they just chose different names depending on whether they worked on the eastern or western section of the SR. As you said the WC/BoB was a slightly smaller version of the Merchant Navy class that was designed to have greater route availability. Externally they look pretty similar but I'm sure there are subtle differences if you know where to look.

Of the 4-6-0 locos the H15s were the earliest version of Urie's 4-6-0s and was a mixed traffic loco. The N15 "King Arthur" was a passenger version with larger wheels and the S15 was a later mixed traffic versions with slightly smaller wheels. The main differences between them were the wheel size but also look out for variations in cab shape, running plate, splashers (or lack thereof) and many other details. The later versions were built to modified designs by Maunsell

The Lord Nelson was a completely different loco completely designed by Maunsell. It has 4 cylinders rather than two and is overall much larger. Interestingly the cranks are set 45 degrees apart rather than the more common 90 with the result that they "chuff" twice as fast as other 4 cylinder locomotives.

ah ok. thanks! Now aren't Maunsell's 4-4-0 "Schools" V class just a cut down version of the Lord Nelson, with some of Urie's LSWR features in it?

The main difference between Merchant Navies and the light pacifics was in the boiler shape/taper. The main weight saving therefore was in a smaller boiler volume, but the clever bit was that OVS Bulleid managed to do it in such a way that the heating surface area remained virtually the same.

There were lots of other little differences -smaller cylinders for example - and I think welded construction was used more extensively than the MNs, welded construction being lighter than riveted.