It's well known that, because of coal shortages during and after WW2, the government sponsored a programme to convert some 1,200 locomotives from all railway companies to burn oil. By 1948, when the railways had been nationalised, almost 100 engines had been altered, but there was insufficient foreign exchange to pay for the additional costs of oil fuel and all locomotives were switched back to coal within nine months.
This wasn't the end of the story as, in 1958, ex GWR pannier tank 3711 was converted to burn oil at Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns' works in Newcastle and remained an oil burner until withdrawal in 1963. I remember seeing this loco at Swindon and noticing the oil tank in the bunker. I read that it was part of an experiment to dispense with a fireman on shunting locos (i.e. to introduce one-man operation). Does anyone know if this is true (and whether any other members of the class were converted)? If true, no doubt ASLEF would have knocked the idea on the head.
This wasn't the end of the story as, in 1958, ex GWR pannier tank 3711 was converted to burn oil at Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns' works in Newcastle and remained an oil burner until withdrawal in 1963. I remember seeing this loco at Swindon and noticing the oil tank in the bunker. I read that it was part of an experiment to dispense with a fireman on shunting locos (i.e. to introduce one-man operation). Does anyone know if this is true (and whether any other members of the class were converted)? If true, no doubt ASLEF would have knocked the idea on the head.