London, Brighton & South Coast 0-6-2 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class E-special / West Brighton (Locobase 10118)

Data from "The Locomotive History of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway," The Locomotive & Railway Carriage & Wagon Review, Vol IV (May 1899), p. 67. Works numbers 16204-16205.

Begun by Stroudley before his untimely death in December 1889, this locomotive was completed over a two-year period. The trailing radial axle was designed by Stroudley, but modified by Billinton, his successor. Its service area ran between Portsmouth and Brighton.

Class E3 (Locobase 10123)

Data from "The Locomotive History of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway," The Locomotive & Railway Carriage & Wagon Review, Vol IV (September 1899), p. 134. Works numbers 16204-16205.

Once Robert J Billinton took full control of the L B & SCR, he began producing his own variation of basic designs. Case in point is the production version of the E-special begun by Stroudley a few years earlier (Locobase 10118). His boiler had fewer tubes of larger diameter (1/8" larger) and a slightly bigger firebox. After 16 were constructed between November 1894 and November 1895, the railway switched to a version with 60" drivers; see Locobase 10124.

The E3s certainly weren't discarded. Like the E4s, the E3s received 17 1/2" cylinders when refitted by the Southern.

All were taken into the Southern Railway system in 1923's Grouping and all were assigned British Railway numbers in 1948

Class E4 (Locobase 10124)

Data from "The Locomotive History of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway," The Locomotive & Railway Carriage & Wagon Review, Vol IV (September 1899), p. 134.

So competent were the E3s in passenger service (Locobase 10123) that Billinton revised the design to accept 60" drivers and created a highly versatile passenger and freight engine. By 1909, the class was complete and modifications began. The cylinder diameter was reduced by 1/2", but boiler pressure went up to 170 psi.

All of the class were taken into the Southern Railway in 1923 and all but the one destroyed in World War II were given British Railways numbers. Most were retired between 1958 and 1964.