'Lord Rodney' BR Green Lord Nelson Class 4-6-0 Steam Locomotive No.30863 By Hornby | Code: R3635 | OO Gauge

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In order to cope with the steadily increasing weight of express passenger traffic on the Southern Railway in the early years of Grouping, Richard Maunsell, the Chief Mechanical Officer, needed a locomotive that was more powerful than the King Arthur class, but one that would still conform to the various gauging and weight issues within the region and still be capable of hauling 500 ton trains at a speed of 55mph.The new Lord Nelson design had to fit within the profile of the King Arthur class and having previously used a Drummond four cylinder locomotive as a test bed, Maunsell altered the positions of the cranks on the Lord Nelson design to give eight exhaust pulses per revolution, rather than four.

The first withdrawal came in May 1961, the last in October 1962 and one locomotive, No.30850 Lord Nelson, was saved for preservation in the National Collection.Built at Eastleigh in October 1929, 863 Lord Rodney entered traffic at Stewarts Lane, before moving to Nine Elms in October 1938 following the fitting of an experimental large diameter chimney. Moving between these two sheds, Lord Rodney moved to Bournemouth in June 1945, but was at Nine Elms when renumbered under British Railways to 30863 in August 1949. Whilst at Eastleigh in 1956, Lord Rodney had the front end renewed following a collision, but was not withdrawn from traffic until February 1962.