The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) A1 class is a class of British steam locomotive. Designed by William Stroudley, 50 members of the class were built in 1872 and between 1874 and 1880, all at Brighton railway works. The class has received several nicknames, initially being known as "Rooters" by their south London crews. However, the engines were more famously known as "Terriers" on account of the distinctive 'bark' of the exhaust beat. Later in their careers, some engines were known as "Hayling Billy" on account of their work on the Hayling Island branch line. A pub of this name on the island was briefly home to the engine which is now No. W8 Freshwater.
After displacement from their original workings out of and by more powerful locomotives from the D1 class and the early stages of the LB&SCR overhead electrification scheme, some representatives of the class were sold to other operators, while the majority of the remainder were put to work on branch lines in Sussex and on non-revenue earning work such as shunting. They were known to reach speeds of up to .
With these new uses being found, the class remained in use on the system, surviving to be taken into ownership by the Southern Railway from 1923 and by British Railways from 1948. Although the number of engines dwindled following the Second World War as the work they were used for was either dieselised or lost to rail through the closure of branch lines and yards, a number continued in operation through into the 1960s. One was fitted for Push-Pull working from Fareham to Lee on the Solent with a 2 car ex-LSWR push-pull set in Summer or just the driving trailer in Winter (previously an LCDR A class 0-4-4T number 626 fitted with the original 2 coach gated set service) but most famously on the Hayling Island branch line in Hampshire. The withdrawal of the final members of the class finally came in 1963, the line to Hayling having closed in November 1963.
Eight members of the class were purchased privately for preservation, with two other examples being donated by British Railways to the Canadian Railway Museum and the National Railway Museum, those being No. 54 Waddon and No. 82 Boxhill respectively. One of these engines, No. 55 Stepney, is best known as being the first standard gauge locomotive to arrive at the Bluebell Railway, which was itself the first preserved standard gauge steam-operated passenger railway in the world when it opened in August 1960, and also for appearing in Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry.
History
London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (1872-1923)
Originally known as 'A' class, these diminutive tank locomotives were designed in 1870 to haul commuter trains on the heavily congested lines in South and South-East London. These included routes from to both East and , to and the line from Victoria to London Bridge via and , as well as operating on the East London Railway under the Thames through the Thames Tunnel designed by Marc Isambard Brunel. Six locomotives were built for these services during 1872, and were successful thanks to their high acceleration between the closely spaced station stops and the use of lightweight trains. A further 44 were built between June 1874 and September 1880 to complement the original six.
+ Construction summary Numbers Quantity Dates to traffic 70–75 6 September–December 1872 64–69 6 June–August 1874 52–63 12 October 1875–February 1876 46–51 6 December 1876–January 1877 41–45, 76 6 June 1877 35–40 6 March–June 1878 77–84 8 July–September 1880 All were built at Brighton.
The locomotives were finished in the livery known as "Stroudley's Improved Engine Green", which was actually an ochre colour, not green. The actual shade of the livery has been much disputed, with opinions ranging from a more yellow type of livery to a livery closer to brown, as worn by the model named Como in the Brighton Toy and Model Museum.
Shortly after construction, No. 40 Brighton was chosen by William Stroudley to represent the LB&SCR at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, and won a gold medal for workmanship. On a run from Dieppe to Paris, arranged to persuade the Chemins de Fer de l'Ouest that the company's boat trains that met the LB&SCR ferries from Newhaven could make better time to the capital, Brighton maintained a speed of nearly , previously unheard of on that line.
During the last two decades of the 19th century, London was expanding outwards as suburbs became more built up and were absorbed into the built-up area of London itself. Towns such as Croydon, Sutton and Norwood, which had previously been commuter towns separate from London, grew to form one large area of housing. Much of this was because of the success of the 'Terriers' themselves, as they had speeded up suburban passenger services, encouraging people to move out of the centre of London. Trains became progressively heavier while the need for shorter journey times remained the same. As a result, the engines gradually became largely unsuited for their original purpose, and they were replaced by the larger D1 class tank engines. However the 'Terriers' were so reliable that they were put on other work, often finding use on branch line passenger and freight workings and as shunting engines.
Twenty-three members of the class were withdrawn between 1898 and 1905, but the majority of these were sold in working order rather than scrapped. Purchasers of these locomotives included the Newhaven Harbour Company, the Isle of Wight Central Railway (IWCR) (four locomotives), Pauling & Co. (five locomotives), the Kent and East Sussex Railway (two locomotives), the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) (two locomotives - Nos. 734 & 735), and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR) (one locomotive - No. 751). Others were transferred from capital to departmental (non-revenue earning) stock as pilots at Brighton locomotive works and Lancing carriage works. It is likely that the remainder of the class would have been withdrawn over the subsequent few years if the railway had not adopted push-pull or 'motor-train' working on many lightly used branch line services. The 'A1' class (as the locomotives were designated after 1905) were found ideally suited for conversion to this form of working.
The original boilers were of diameter with barrel long, wrought-iron fireboxes long having a grate area of and worked at a pressure of . Steel fireboxes were tried on two locomotives in 1889 but these were unsuccessful. From 1888, new fireboxes were made of copper, with a slightly smaller grate area, , but an increased pressure of . Not all were so fitted, as withdrawal began in 1898, although some of the locomotives sold were reboilered by their new owners. These included the SE&CR locomotive, given a new boiler in 1910, its firebox being longer at having a grate area of , the pressure remaining at ; and also the two LSWR locomotives, given new Drummond-design boilers in 1912, their barrels being of diameter and length , fireboxes long having a grate area of and a pressure of .
The original cylinders were of bore by stroke. Beginning in 1892, new cylinders were normally of bore, and most of the locomotives were so modified by the end of 1900. Between 1906 and 1909, most of the survivors were given cylinders, including three which never had 14-inch cylinders. Two exceptions were nos. 82 and 642, which in 1905 and 1907 were given smaller cylinders – bore and bore respectively.
Between 1911 and 1913, twelve survivors were re-boilered under the instruction of Douglas Earle Marsh, Stroudley's successor as CME of the LB&SCR, with another four so treated after the Great War; these engines formed the A1X class with an increased weight of . These A1x boilers were longer than the originals, having a barrel length of ; they had a grate area of and a pressure of . Other changes made during the rebuilding were the extension of the smokebox (removing the smokebox 'wings', and moving the sandboxes from this same area (where they formed a forward extension of the leading driving wheel splasher) to below the running plate (although some locos rebuilt later retained the original sandboxes). The tube which had been used as part of the original condensing arrangement between the smokebox and side-tank was also removed. The engines were repainted during this time in 'Marsh Umber' livery. A1x boilers were also fitted to some of the locomotives that had already been sold, including two of the four bought by the IWCR.
Five locomotives were bought by the British Government in 1918 and sent to Scotland to work at the U.S. Navy's North Sea Mine Barrage minelaying project at Inverness and Dalmore, near Invergordon. The facilities were built by the Admiralty, using distillery sites, but administered by the U.S. Navy. The locos were Nos 37 Southdown, 79 Minories, 81 Beulah and 83 Earlswood at Dalmore, and 38 Millwall which was used at Glen Albyn, Inverness. Nos 38, 81 and 83 later went on to the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway.
Southern Railway (1923-1948)
Fifteen of the class remained in LB&SCR stock at the formation of the Southern Railway on 1 January 1923, but this figure was increased to 24 by the inclusion of those which had previously been sold to other constituent railways. Several examples were withdrawn over the next few years, and two were sold to the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway in 1925 and 1937. As with the withdrawals under the LB&SCR, the engines were not withdrawn en masse, but instead over a long period of time. The first A1X to be withdrawn by the Southern Railway was No. 42 Tulse Hill in 1925, and among the engines withdrawn was the now-famous No. 55 Stepney, which only escaped being scrapped by virtue of the need for lighter engines on Hayling Island. The two locomotives, No. 43 Gipsy Hill and No.53 Ashtead, sold to the WCPR in 1925 and 1937 (see above) were renumbered No. 2 Portishead and No. 4 respectively. On the closure of that line in 1940, both locomotives entered service with the GWR, as No. 5 Portishead and No. 6 respectively, and survived into BR ownership. No. 5 Portishead was scrapped in 1954, No. 6 in 1948.
Many of the locomotives remained in traffic, both departmental and in regular stock. They lasted longer than most classes of pre-grouping tank engine under the Southern Railway, primarily due to the presence of several light railways which came under the Southern Railway's jurisdiction at the grouping, such as the lines from and Hayling Island, as well as on the Isle of Wight. Most of these lines needed small engines such as the 'Terrier' class due to severe weight restrictions. Among the engines transferred into departmental use was the former No. 82 Boxhill, which was restored to original condition, painted in the yellow ochre livery of Stroudley and used as a shunter at Brighton Works, being numbered 380S and named after the works itself. This engine was replaced by 377S, formerly No. 35 Morden, in 1948. Although much photographed toward the end of steam, this locomotive was not preserved but was scrapped at Eastleigh in 1963.