The Southern Railway L1 class was a class of

4-4-0 4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

tender locomotive A tender or coal-car (US only) is a special rail vehicle hauled by a steam locomotive containing its fuel (wood, coal, oil or torrefied biomass) and water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared to the quantity of fuel, so ...

s built for express passenger service on the

South Eastern Main Line The South Eastern Main Line is a major long-distance railway route in South East England, UK, one of the three main routes crossing the county of Kent, going via Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Ashford and Folkestone to Dover. The other routes are the C ...

of the Southern Railway. They were designed by

Richard Maunsell Richard Edward Lloyd Maunsell (pronounced "Mansell") (26 May 1868 – 7 March 1944) held the post of chief mechanical engineer (CME) of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1913 until the 1923 Grouping and then the post of CME of the ...

as a development of

Harry Wainwright Harry Smith Wainwright (16 November 1864 – 19 September 1925) was an English railway engineer, and was the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1899 to 1913. He is best known for a s ...

's L class.

Background

had built two useful and attractive

classes for the

South Eastern and Chatham Railway The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee (SE&CRCJMC),Awdry (1990), page 199 known as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR), was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Easter ...

between 1902 and 1908; the D class and the E class, and had completed designs for a larger L class at the time of his retirement at the end of 1913. However, by 1918 they were beginning to struggle with the heaviest express trains. Wainwright's successor, Richard Maunsell, therefore rebuilt several examples of the D and E classes immediately before the grouping of the SECR with other railways to form the Southern Railway in 1923. When Maunsell was appointed as

Chief Mechanical Engineer Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...

of the new railway he turned his attention to designing new K & K1 class

2-6-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a locomotive has two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called Adriatic. Overview With only a few known except ...

tank engine A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locomot ...

s. However, in 1926 there was an urgent requirement for fifteen more powerful 4-4-0 locomotives for the London to

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

express trains. Maunsell did not rebuild the L class as the locomotives were still relatively new and useful in their present form. He rather amended Wainwright's drawings to form his own L1 class, and supplied them to the

North British Locomotive Company The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Wor ...

. The weight of the new class was increased to 57 tons 16 cwt. The boiler pressure was increased from 160 to 180 lbs per square inch but the cylinders reduced in diameter from . The engines also had long-travel piston valves, Maunsell's own design of superheater and side-window cab and other detail alterations.

Numbering

The locomotives were originally numbered A753–A759, and A782–A789, but were later renumbered by the Southern Railway as 1753–1759 and 1782–1789. All passed to

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

(BR) in 1948 and were again renumbered between 31753 and 31789.

Operational details

The locomotives were used on express trains on the South Eastern main lines from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

and

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

. They remained on these duties until the mid-1930s when they were gradually replaced on the heavier trains by the older "King Arthur" and newer "Schools" classes. They continued to be used on the former

London Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and no ...

main line to Dover and Ramsgate until after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

of British Railways in 1948. The transfer of Bulleid "Light Pacifics" to these services in the early 1950s made the class largely redundant. Some were briefly transferred to

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

and to replace worn out locomotives on cross-country services, but most spent their careers between London and the Kent coast. Withdrawals began in 1959, and the final example (31786) was withdrawn in February 1962. None survived to be preserved. Ashford Locomotive Depot geograph-2651634-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Ashford Locomotive Depot geograph-2651634-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Redhill with Birmingham - Margate express geograph-2666209-by-Ben-Brooksbank

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sr L1 Class L1 4-4-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1926 NBL locomotives Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives