Resolving Town-class shaft-count discrepancies

If one of the old Town-class ships had only two shafts, would that undermine the conversion?

It would matter, but the apparent discrepancy may come from inconsistent counting. The scenario retains the four-shaft arrangement found in the cited book sources.

Online listings give conflicting combinations of shafts and turbines for Birmingham, Lowestoft, Chatham, and Southampton. One possible explanation is inconsistent counting of individual turbines and turbine sets that drive two shafts. That remains a possible explanation, and the conflicting entries are not reconciled. The conversion retains the four-shaft arrangement found in the book sources used for the scenario. A genuine two-shaft arrangement would change the refit assumptions.