The LCDR M3 class was a class of

4-4-0 4-4-0, in the Whyte notation, denotes a steam locomotive with a wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels. First built in the ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s of the

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England. It was created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through Lond ...

. The class was designed by William Kirtley and introduced in 1891.

History

The class were an enlargement of Kirtley's earlier M1 and M2 classes intended for the London-Dover

boat train A boat train is a passenger train operating to a port for the specific purpose of making connection with a passenger ship, such as a ferry, ocean liner, or cruise ship. Through ticketing is normally available. __NOTOC__ Notable named boat train ...

s. They proved to be successful for these tasks for more than a decade. The locomotives passed to 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 Eas ...

in 1899 after which they were superseded on the heaviest trains by the SECR D class between 1903 and 1905 and transferred to secondary duties. The class was nevertheless considered to be sufficiently useful to be worth re-boilering between 1909 and 1917. The entire class survived into Southern Railway ownership in 1923, but the appearance of the King Arthur class on the line after 1925 meant that they had all been withdrawn and scrapped by 1928.

References

* M3 4-4-0 locomotives 2′B n2 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1891 Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives in the United Kingdom Vulcan Foundry locomotives {{England-steam-loco-stub