40-46 Brighton Belles...

Here are a few engines from the Brighton Works. Passenger trains were electified, the 'little green trains', so locomotives were freight only. The London, Brighton and South Coast railway connected the south coast with Victoria terminus in London. Notice the B over the number, for Brighton. After grouping in 1923, Southern had engines from Ashford, Brighton and Eastleigh, all with the same number sequence so distinguished them with the A, B or E suffix. Later (B) 349 would become 2349, and in BR 32349. Here are a few. Goods engines had a green livery, passenger engines umber.

40. First, class K, a nice-looking mogul, number (B)349 [later 2349 and 32349].  The first 2-6-0 at Brighton, built to have good power and acceleration in busy London traffic, avoiding the need to double-head two 0-6-0 'Vulcans'. This one began service in 1920, the first of the class being introduced in 1913

41. The last two of the K class were the first to be built with 'top feed', having two domes - these were 350 and 351. Here, 350 is clean and coaled up ready to go. Someone somewhere I am sure can tell me the technical details.

42. Other K class locos were converted to top-feed as the came in for overhaul, Here is (B)347 in the mid-1920s. Top feed was also fitted during rebuilding to a few of the smaller and earlier 0-6-0 32x class.

43. Class E4X 0-6-2, started by Stroudley and completed by R.J Billinton from 1897, designed for passenger traffic. Four had a complete rebuild by Marsh, including this one - hence the X. In LBSCR days the livery would have been umber.

44. Presumably Class D though it had been scrapped by 1944. An 1870s design, it frequently was seen in passenger livery with named engines like Carlshalton, Sydenham, Groombridge and Denbies. In the 1920s they are however in goods black. Comment below says: Photo 44 is of the sole example of class D1x, a rebuilt large boiler D1. I have never seen a photo of this loco before, indeed I was not aware of the class's existence. Please keep up your work on these photos, although quite a few are well known to enthusiasts like myself, many are not and there are some real gems in them.

45. Class E2, 0-6-0 built around 1916 with extended side tanks. They worked on passenger as well as goods trains and survived well into BR days, some through to the end of steam.

46. Class I1X, a 4-4-2 tank. The I1 (note, the letter I and the number 1) was a poor engine in every way. A few were rebuilt and much improved under Southern operation, and carried the X as a result.  Few survived into BR days.