Power Classification	2MT
Introduced	1897 – 1903
Designer	Billinton
Company	LBSCR
Weight	57t 10cwt
Driving Wheels	5ft 0ins
Boiler Pressure	170psi
Cylinders	Inside – 17.5in x 26in
Tractive Effort	19,175lbf
Valve Gear	Stephenson (slide valve)

One of Billinton’s early tasks during his tenure as Chief Locomotive Engineer, on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, was to finish the construction of Stroudley’s E class 0-6-2T goods, the first of 134 Brighton radial tanks (The radial tank takes its name from the radial axle beneath the driver’s cab. Rather than the more conventional pivoted pony truck, the radial axle is set in curved hornguides in the main frames. This allows the pony wheels to adjust independently to sharp curves).

Stroudley designed the first 0-6-2 radial tank to be produced for the LBSCR as an improvement to his E1 class but he died while the work was in progress to complete the build of the locomotives.

E1 class introduced by Stroudley in 1874

A further to sixteen more similar locomotives were constructed and the seventeen resulting locomotives were designated class E3.

E3 as originally built by Billingham in 1894. The first of the class was designed by Stroudley and built in 1891.

So successful were these locomotives when assigned to passenger duties rather than the goods duties for which they were intended that Billinton decided to build another version expressly for passenger train work. These, the E4 class were known as Billinton’s radials, started entering traffic in 1897 and were virtually the same as the earlier E3 class but with driving wheels enlarged from 4′ 6″ to 5′ and higher pitched 160lb pressure boilers.

Seventy-five of the E4 class locomotives were built at Brighton by 1903 and named after towns and villages in the LBSCR’s area. One of the early locos, 469, was named Beachy Head and was the only one not to be named after a village or small town. This name was, of course, to be made famous in later years when applied by the Southern Railway to one of Marsh’s H2 Class Atlantics. They subsequently had the names removed by Marsh in 1906.

Initially painted in Stroudley Goods Green, from locomotive 487 onwards they were turned out painted in Stroudley’s Improved Engine Green, a yellow colour, with some of the older, green, locomotives subsequently being re-painted yellow, until 1906 when Marsh repainted them in dark umber and removed their names. Why they were at first painted in the Goods colour when they were expressly designed for passenger work is uncertain.

As time progressed and the engines came in for heavy overhaul they were fitted with 17½ in. cylinders in place of the original 18 in one. Then, in 1909, Marsh rebuilt three engines with new higher-pitched I2 pattern boilers of 170lb pressure, restored the 18 in cylinders (though not for long) and replacement smokeboxes mounted on a new saddle, to produce the E4x Class, with a fourth being so treated in 1911. Many other E4s were reboilered, as well as having other modifications, during their lives but not to the full E4x specification, which remained as a sub-class of just four.

Originally sent to work the London suburban passenger trains, they found themselves relocated to country areas when displaced by the new electric services. Several examples were found new jobs as station pilots, most famously at London Waterloo, where they brought empty carriage rakes into the station from the yards at Clapham Junction. They were also used on services such as the locally famous Lancing Belle, which ran from Brighton to the Lancing Carriage Works of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, often double-headed with members of the same class or the larger E6 class. Others were to be found at Eastleigh and Tonbridge.

All bar one (2483, scrapped in July 1944) survived into British Railways service. Their last days were spent mainly on shunting duties until they were replaced by the inevitable diesels. All E4x locos were withdrawn by January 1959 whilst the E4s worked on in continually diminishing numbers until the last, 32479, was withdrawn in June 1963.

32470, 32481, 32498, 32504, 32506, 32516, 32518, 32562, 32563, 32564, 32565 and 32580 were loaned to the Railway Operating Division in 1917 and worked in France until 1919.

32510 was sent to the Isle of Wight in 1947 for trials on the island. It was not a success as it was found to be too big and it returned to the mainland in 1949. It never received a number in the Isle of Wight service.

Number in Service.

	Built		Rebuilt As E4X	Withdrawals	No. in Service
	BR Numbers	Quantity
1897	32463-4	2			2
1898	32465-82	18			20
1899	32484-96	13			33
1900	32497-510	14			47
1901	32511-20, 32556-64	19			66
1902	32565-6	2			68
1903	32577-82	6			74
1909-11	32466,77-78,89		4		70
1912-54					70
1955				7	63
1956				7	56
1957				6	50
1958				5	45
1959				12	33
1960				5	28
1961				14	14
1962				10	4
1963				4	0

• The four rebuilt were equipped with boilers from I2 4-4-2T engines.

 

Allocation of locomotives in service as at 1^st of January.

Depot	1948	1957	1963
Bricklayers Arms	9	6
Brighton	10	15	4
Eastbourne	2
Eastleigh		6
Fratton	4	3
Guildford	3	3
Horsham	7	4
Newhaven	6	1
Newport IOW	1
Nine Elms		9
Norwood Junction	12
Redhill	3	2
Three Bridges	7	2
Tonbridge	3	3
Tunbridge Wells West	3	2
	70	56	4

 

Accidents and Incidents

Locomotive 32468 ran into the buffers at Kemp Town station, Brighton, East Sussex – date unknown.

Preservation

• 32473 (LBSCR 473 Birch Grove, SR B473, BR s2473 & BR 32473)

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