4-4-0 Steam Locomotives in Great Britain

Class A (Locobase 10281)

Data from J. Pearson Pattinson, The South Eastern Railway: its passenger services, rolling stock, locomotives, gradients and express speeds (London: Cassell and Co., 1895), p. 14

These were the first 4-coupled bogies to run on the South Eastern in 1879-1880 and were a product of James Stirling. As can be seen, they were small passenger engines "...that easily deal with the Gravesend fast trains, or similar runs not requiring a train to travel a great distance without stopping."

Class B/B1 (Locobase 10098)

Data from "New Four-Coupled Express Engines, S E Ry," The Locomotive & Railway Carriage & Wagon Review, Volume III [3] (August 1898), p. 121; and J Pearson Pattinson, "New Locomotives for the South Eatern Railway", Railroad Gazette, Volume XXX [30], No. 44 (4 November 1898), p. 791. See also "SER Wainwright B1" on the Southern Railway E-mail Group website at [], last accessed 2 April 2021and "SE&CR Express Locomotive with Feed-Water Heater", LM, Volume XXVII [27] (15 November 1921), p.280.. Neilson, Reid works numbers were 5325-5344 in 1897. Ashford Works built the last nine in 1898 (4) and 1899 (5).

Although the 240 class was still in production (Locobase 2235), James Stirling felt the need for a more frankly express passenger locomotive. So he offered this design, which had more tubes in a thicker boiler, but seemed otherwise almost unchanged. One difference was the construction of the cab, which had a roof that was separate from the side sheets. (as opposed to forming the cab sides and roof in one sheet). He retired from the SER shortly thereafter.

SREmG's account describes the good result, "which was not only a far more successful design than anything he had produced previously but also exhibited marked differences of appearance above the footplate when compared with his previous engines."

Pattinson reported that a series of test runs saw one of the class head "down" (i.e. toward Dover) trailing 232 tons and achieving an average speed of 54.35 mph (87.5 kph) over36*1.611.6 26 1/2 miles (42.7 km) of level track. Its "up" performance took the 1 in 122 (0.8%) grade between Tunbridge and Sevenoaks (7 1/2 miles/12.1 km) at speeds that never dropped below 36 mph (58 kph). Other sources noted that the SER's physical plant was in great need of upgrade to achieve such results in regular service.

Harry Wainwright replaced Stirling's domeless boiler with a new domed vessel that added two inches to the firebox length. He increased operating pressure to 170 psi.

Long after the South Eastern merged with the London, Chatham & Dover to form the South Eastern & Chatham, the SE&CR installed a Maunsell-designed feed water heater in Engiine #15. The device admitted the water through clack boxes on either side of a boiler dome mounted for that purpose. Water flowed "in a shallow stream, over a tray of helical shape, onto a saddle afficed to the steam pipe." The "thoroughly heated" water then entered the boiler's main body of water.

A significant advantage claimed for this approach was the separation of impurities, which then precipitated and fell to the boiler's bottom "in the form of an easily removable loose mud, so avoiding to a large extente the formation of hard scale upon the tubes and firebox walls.

Class Mails / F (Locobase 2235)

Data from E L Ahrons, The British Railway Locomotive, 1825-1925 (London: Locomotive Publishing Company, 1926); and "Express Locomotive: South-Eastern Railway", Engineering, Volume 49 (2 May 1890), pp. 532-534. See also "Mr Stirling's Engines on the South Eastern Railway," The Locomotive & Railway Carriage & Wagon Review, Volume VIII [8] (30 May 1904), p. 78; and Titre Exposition universelle internationale de 1889 a Paris. Rapports du jury internationale. Auteur - Volume France. Ministere du Commerce, de l'industrie. Picard, Alfred, ed. Volume Groupe VI - -Outillage et precedes des industries mecaniques. Electricite (5e partie) Classes 60 a 63. Rapport sur le materiel des chemins de fer; tables beginning on p. 183 ([] (accessed 1 September 2005).

The Exposition Report credited the design with 102.33 sq ft of firebox heating surface and 1,015 sq ft altogether. This was echoed by the US Commissioners' Report on the same engine, except that the totals are 103.5 sq ft and 1,020.5 sq ft, respectively, probably as a result of slightly different conversions from metric measurements. Ahrons's data gave a higher value, which Locobase suspects came from adding the firebox value twice.

The Jury notes that the James Stirling design featured a domeless boiler and the US Commissioners' report described the engine as "...a fine specimen of workmanship" and cited in particular its pneumatic reversing gear.

A later writer, published in 1903 in notes that the boiler used was essentially the same as that on the 72"-drivered bogie passenger locomotives.