The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) E2 class was a class of 0-6-0Tsteam locomotives designed by Lawson Billinton, these were generrally employed for shunting, piloting duties in London termini and local goods trains, assigned in their useful life to different London stations. Were introduced in 1913: The first of Lawson Billinton's own designs for the LB&SCR was a relatively modest 0-6-0T to replace some of the early Stroudley E1 goods locos. They appeared neat, compact and modern, with an impression of power that outshone the ´E1´ rebuild. With the advantage of improved boiler feed the ´E2s´ were less restricted in their activities, more capable.
E1 Rebuild was use as prototype for the Billinton's E2's
The Stroudley E1s were used as station pilots and in short-distance goods trains. Eventually, this class was replaced by the E3s of R.J. Billinton, based on the prototype E1 O-6-2T No. 158 by William Stroudley himself. The radial tanks were useful on all goods trains except the heaviest goods trains, and their small wheels limited their usefulness in suburban passenger transport. Eventually, more powerful and larger locomotive were built: E4, E5, and E6 classes.[1] However, the old Stroudley E1 engines continued in operation until 1908 when the retirements began.[2]
In 1910, many of the Stroudley E1 class (Builds in 1874-1891) engines were worn out or inadequate for the heavier duties required in those years of them. Billinton had been aware for some years that Stroudley`s `E1` six coupled workhorses were nearing the end of their usefulness, not on account of mechanical failure, but because the local goods and shunting duties they had worked so successfully for three decades were becoming too heavy.[3][4] The local goods and shunting duties were becoming increasingly taxing.[4]One of Mash´s last acts was to take No. 89 into works as a guinea pig for reboilering all the class. Certainly in appearance Marsh ´E1X´. Marsh had always disliked scrapping engines if by reboilering or renewal they could undertake more arduous task,[3] whereas Billinton just as firmly believe that aged engines were best scrapped and replaced with modern larger locomotives.[4] No 89 Brest It had a larger boiler (same as that of the D1x ) the water tanks and coal bunker were expanded, a new cab was installed and steam sading.[5] Only one E1 rebuild (E1X) had been completed in 1911 by the time of this unexpected retirement. Mars`h successor Billiton reserved this policy and design one new class. The Marsh’s ’E1X’ served as a prototype and starting point for Billiton ‘E2’.[4]
History
Construction and design
Second series E2 with extended tanks, 1915
As early as November 1911 “The Acting Locomotive Engineer submitted Drawing No. 1008 goods tank engines for use in shunting yards to replace six wheel coupled shunting engines now working, and advised that 20 of these engines should be built by away of renewals”. By October 1912, he designed and ordered five six- coupled side tanks from Brighton-Railworks at a cost of £2,010 each, and the same time set a side a similar number of Stroudley’s veterans for withdrawal. [3]
The class included several features found on other LB&SCR classes including an I2 class boiler modified to accommodate the Weir pump and hot water injector for use on high-pressure steam.[4] Billinton was persuaded that no advantages would accrue from superheating[4][a] shunting or local engines by the extra expense and maintenance. Economy was not entirely forgotten,[2] because to usual Brighton condensing arrangements were available. The cylinders and motion were standard with the B4’s, although only bored to 17 ½ in.[3] This batch embodied the Brighton’s final use of the Robert Billinton Derby front-end layout.[4]
The class E2, 0-6-0T with slotted frames, the now usual curved drop of the platforms towards each, a boiler similar to the I2 class with 170 lbf/in2 (1.17 Mpa) pressure and the same cylinders, six small wheels were 4ft 6in (1.372m), the tanks were of 1,090impgal (5,000L; 1,310USgal) and the weight in order was 52 3/4 long tons (52,750 kg). Five engines were build of the initial variety, 100-104 between May and December 1913.[6] They appeared neat, compact and modern, with an impression of power that outshone the ´E1´ rebuild. With the advantage of improved boiler feed the ´E2s´ were less restricted in their activities.[4] Their only handicap was the small water capacity, as time proved.[4][7]The first three engines were equipped with a reverser handle, whilst the last two were fitted with a screw-and-handle system.[4][b]
Though occupied with the introduction of the K and L classes, Billinton put in for five more which the Board sancionated in March 1914 from Brighton-works the cost had a risen to £2217 a piece. However, “The Great War” so delayed construction that the last was not completed until late 1916.
Because of the small water capacity on the first engines, Billinton gave the next batch of five engines with extended side tanks, increasing up 1,256impgal (5,710L; 1,508USgal). [8][9] The second batch, five of a slightly modified form Nos. 105-109, they had longer side tanks, the water capacity increased by 166 gallons which solved the problem of first batch,[4][8] cut out at the bottom in front to give access to the motion, to extend their range without having to take water, an increased overall length by 3 1⁄2 in. and air assisted crew-and-handle reversing which must helped in demanding shunting situation.[7] The weight distribution of the wheels of the second batch had alterations in addition to the extended tanks: their weight increased to 53 long tons 10 cwt (53,508,023 kg). [8]
Operations
LB&SCR E2 32106 running with goods.
The Billinton E2 tanks was really useful for what they were intended:[10]Shunting and local goods in the main line or even branch lines. His first assignments were: No. 100 was sent new to Eastbourne, shunting locally and working the mid-day goods to the various utility sidings and down to the Ballast Hole on the Crumbles beach.[11] This supplied the company’s shingle for ballasting its track (Between May and July 1914, for instance, 3,835 tons was dispatched), as well as exporting it to the Midland Railway (940 tons for the Midland) to balance its inward coal sheds, Battersea,Brighton and New Cross.[3] Of the other 1913-14 E2’s nos. 103 and 104 went to New Cross ,[3] No. 101 to Battersea and No. 102 to Brighton where it was employed almost exclusively in the morning (6.35 a.m) goods to Hassocks, where empty wagons were dropped for the Company’s sand siding and loaded ones picked up before proceeding to Hove to shunt the yards.[3]
Its success led to testing it on a passenger service by 1914: Nos. 103 and 104 were fitted with the standard air assisted screw-and-handlesystem, painted in passenger livery and provided with push-pull equipment, for some time in 1914 worked on middle of two sets of three coaches, six-coach motor trains running between London Bridge,Forest Hill and Cristal Palace,[11] however the task was very demanding for their bunker, the task of push and pull of the E2 was had to travel back and forth between stations, the E2s easily reached its destinations; it wasn't that far, it was the route they had to cover for a prolonged period of back and forth, and for that type of task, they didn't have enough coal for the performance that had been expected, too was discovered excessive oscillations when accelerating from stations or signal stops as well much unsteadiness at high speed: the fire-throwing also proved a troublesome.[3]
Even No. 104 was later transferred to Tunbridge Wells for the local motor-train service there, "but apparently found unacceptable"[3] being like that was possibly due to oscillations when accelerating from stations or signal box.[3]
According to Let Hamilton in LB&SCR, only mentions that the test were abandoned because: "the engines had insufficient bunkers, and it was abandoned in the same year".[6]
The tests would be abandoned in the same year, the equipment was discarded and both engines returned to shunting and local goods duties.....[3]
The first four new of the class (Nos. 105,6,7,8) went to London for use on piloting and empty stocks workings out of London Bridge and Victoria, but the demands of wartime saw them increasingly involved in conveying wagons to the Great northern railway.[9] On entering traffic Nos. 105/8 went to Battersea, Nos 106/7 to New Cross and No. 109 to Brighton. Those at New cross spent much of their time piloting at London or working empty-stock trains to and from the carriage sidings, but Nos. 105/8 of Battersea could usually be found on local goods, and occasionally, one also worked in the Battersea Yard-Norwood Junction goods, which conveyed wagons for the midland Railway and Northern Railway. [8] No. 105 was assigned to ThreeBridges in May 1916 to assist in marshalling goods trains arriving from the North and West, for more efficiency, The local enginemen, however, preferred their ‘E3s’, and ‘E2’(105) was returned to Battersea. [9]
Something interesting in one of his assignment: In 1919 No, 102 was transferred to Battersea their duties fell to No. 109 which this engine hitherto had had usually take the 3.10 a.m Brighton-Hassocks goods and then worked to Angmering with stops to set down and pick up wagons at Portslade, Shoreham, Worthing, West Worthing and Goring.[3]
After the end of hostilities the cost of wages had increased rapidly during the war years, and 1921 Billinton was instructed to carry out series of time-and-motion studies regarding likely economies in his department. With shunting in mind, a service movement recorder was fitted to No. 109 This led to re-timing some main line goods service and making more efficient use of the yard pilots, reducing the number of shunting engines daily in steam by eleven. The recorder appeared on No. 109 again in July 1923 but invoked the opposition of the men’s union by indicating means of reducing overtime.[9][8]
In the grouping with Southern Railway in 1923, the E2s followed piloting in Victoria-London station, shunting and transport goods trains, however there was a summons back to passenger service by the General Strike of 1926.[9] Nos 103 and 104 was employed as passenger locomotives (The crew had to have a good understanding of how to handle them), and for first time Nos. 106 and 107 as passenger locomotives. These engines were operated around London even had the opportunity to bring some special trains.[12] No. 109 even got this chance in the passenger services as motor local train whilst on loan to Tunbridge Wells West alongside pulling morning pick-up goods trains to Three Bridges.[9] Being used as occasional passenger locomotives the three 1916 E2's.[13]
In 1926 Maunsell Was not finished with tank locomotives after the sevennoaks disaster, but it is notable that all future designs were expressly for duties no involving passenger work. In late 1927 he ordered that some studies be initiated into the provision of a new 0-6-0T, to replace the large numbers of preGrouping designs. The ex-LB&SCR ´E2´ class was the starting point. These tanks were primarily for shunting duties across the Southern and total of 105 envisaged and development of which was proposed as a standard Southern branch line type, but financial constraints resulted in cancelation of this designed.[14]
Following the electrification of the Brighton line in 1936, the class was used as replacements for the former LCDRT class at the Herne Hill marshalling yard, around Victoria station: were used for shunt of Sorting Sidings and for transport of empty stock around Victoria.[15] But prior to World War II Nos. 2106 and 2107 were at Dover to shunt the sleeping cars and other vehicles on and off the new train ferries and they was to bring in the stock for the Night Ferry and then bank the train out of Victoria. No 2105 replaced No. 2107. The pair of ‘E2s were shunting in the docks and marshalling the ferries until fall of France until 1939 when it ceased due to the onset of World War II.[9] During World War II, they also replaced the SR Z class at Hither Green marshalling yard: The Z class saw service in Scotland but were not well received: as crews in the North struggled to adapt their driving techniques to the unique valve gearing design featured in the Z class and was moved to Dover in 1944 when the Second Front was opened.[9]
After of World War II, in 1948, Southern Railway had already been unified with British Railways.The weir pump of the class was discarded and replaced by injectors. The class saw service in every section of the Southern Railway, working local goods and shunting yards. The last few years in traffic were served in Southampton docks, Dover, Battersea and Herne Hill yards.[16]
The class were drafted to Southampton to ironically replace withdrawn Stroudley’s E1 tanks on trip working and shunting in the middle-1950s,[17]The class went to work in complement with the SR USA Tank engines (in service by 1946-1947; their bunkers only stored less than 1 ton of coal) and were found to be suitable for the task: The SR USA Tank engines shunting in the more steepest curves and the E2 shunting and transporting trains. Six examples were retained for this purpose and found very well in this and remained almost until the end of the Steam era when the engines started to wear out and their replacement by British Rail Class 07 diesel shunters in 1962 (were directly build to replace steam in the docks mainly to replace the SR Usa Tank engines and Billinton’s E2’s, although because the SR Usa Tank class was more recent they were completely withdrawn a few years later).[3]:129-131
An unqualified sucess.
The class was retired after a very well performance as local goods engines during its nearly five decades in operation.[18] One engine had the top mileage for the class of 799,110.000 miles (1,286,042.884km) other menbers had a mileage similar,[19] the class had an use operational incredibly high as much as the C2X or the suburban locomotive like the E4, of course not reaching the highest mileage of them because the E2s was built decades later. But none survived into preservation, the last two engines were retired in April 1963 and scrapped either that same year or the following year.
Let Hamilton Ellis have the final word: ‘Though dumpy little engines, they had the good lines of all the Billinton dynasty’ [20]
Hornby produced the locomotive in its earliest form as an OO gauge model. Production lasted from 1979 to 1985 in three distinct variants with four reference numbers.[23]
Notes
↑Billinton deemed the superheaters unnecessary for use on the E2s, whilst on shunting duties.[4]
↑Billinton deemed the superheaters unnecessary for use on the E2s, whilst on shunting duties.[4]
Railway world: The next part of my programme was a great improvement a combined trip and shunting job at Hove and all goods yards to West Worthing. The engine was an L. B. Billinton ‘E2’ 0-6-OT No 109, which had a Quick-acting Westinghouse air brake. (a very good braking system very only for the E2 class ). After a few days my driver let me do all the shunting in each of the goods yards. She was a joy to drive. I was then put in the local goods gang with a regular engine and driver, our engine being an R.J. Billinton ‘E4’0-6-2T No 485 (old Ashington).[24]
Is 1953 the `E2s`were used almost invariably for yard or very local shunting, and freight trip duties based on Battersea (Stewarts lane) and Dover depots (70-80 miles of travel). For one to bee seen out in the "country" hauling a train is most unusual, but 32108, while on its away from Eastleigh to Dove r (around 140 miles of travel), recently worked an empty wagon train from Eastorbune to Hastings, then, after spending the night at St. Leonards shed. double-headed the morning Hastings-Ashford goods with Bulleid "Q1" 0-6-0 No 33027.
No spare boilers were supplied until August 1921, when one was built at Brighton and fitted to No.101 and this boiler was interchange amongst the class.. [9]
At the end of 1953, No. 32104 was sent to Ashford and fitted with the boiler from E4x No. 32477 with its unusually shaped dome cover and interesting curiosity.. [9](Most likely, number 32104 was worn out. There was no change because The Billinton E4 and Billinton E2 functioned similarly)
The genesis of the E2 class engines lay in the fact that his predecessor had bequeathed a good many spare boilers of a certain type (I2) which were likely to take several years to use up. The last new type of shunting engine had been Stroudley`s E1 class of 1874 and the E2 were designed round these spare boilers to fulfil a very pressing need. Regarding his superheating of the Marsh Atlantics (which he conceded were always realistically called Ivatt Atlantics at Brighton Works), he gave a witty and fascinating description of the way in which the Brighton men found they could do without superheater dampers – despite threats of dire consequences issuing from the superheater manufacturers officials.[25]
Today, it's generally believed that they were bad steamers or bad shunters, when biographies never implied this, or that their small water tanks and coal capacity made them unsuitable for long journeys. This last point is taken out of context because the very fact that they are tank engines already indicates they were designed for short-distance travel in the main line, like any other class of tank locomotive.[3]The idea that they were bad steamers or an excessive consumption of water and coal is inaccurate (this is often said for the I2 boiler that they had equipped , but its problem was due for a small firebox, a problem the E2 never had),they were considered a success, the main reason for judging a class of locomotive as successful is primarily it's performance.[26]And as for them being poor shunters due to a long wheelbase, None of the biographies mention this, they are actually referred to as compact locomotives,: they had a wheelbase that offered power and great versatility to shunting. Or rather, when referring to the E2 with a long wheelbase, it originally comes from a documentary: which meant a brief comparison between two very different classes because the type of wheelbase of the E2, as well as the LMS 3F, LNER J50, GWR 57XX, Radial tanks of R.J Billinton, etc. was somewhat unusual use this type of locomotive as dock shunters, although the E2s were not dockside locomotives they worked very well until near the end of the steam era.The notion that they had bad brakes is also inaccurate, the class had Westinghouse Quick-Action brakes, it's was an improvement of the revolutionary automatic brake.These different braking systems generate confusion and it is believed that the Westinghouse brakes caused damage to the rolling stock, that is the straight air brake, which did break couplings and caused collisions in the wagons, the E2 not have this braking system according to many biography or railway-mangazine.[24]
↑"Thomas the Tank Engine". (The real prototype locomotives that inspired the Rev W Awdry). The Real Lives of Thomas the Tank Engine. Archived from the original on 13 December 2004. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
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