LB&SCR D3 Class - Construction and Working

Construction and Working

Before working for the LB&SCR, Billinton worked for the Midland Railway's locomotive department, hence he had got used to 0-4-4T designs which that company used for similar work which the D3's were built for. The design centred on the idea of being a 'improved' version of William Stroudley's D1 tanks, the D3 intending to be replace the D1s on certain duties. The design shared spare parts with Billinton's other designs, the cylinder's design being shared with the C2 goods engines, the boilers with the E4 radial tanks.

Their first employment was services radiating around Tunbridge Wells and outer-suburban work into London. One locomotive, number 363, was named after the company's chairman, Sir Julian Goldsmid, who was so fond of the engine he had an image of the locomotive used on the railway's cap badges. Another locomotive, No. 375 Glynde, was used to haul an armoured train for the 1st Sussex Volunteers for two years from 1896.

The class, along with other Billinton and Stroudley engines, were reboilered. Two were rebuilt as class D3x with larger boilers, but this proved to be ineffective, and smaller boilers were used on the rest, which remained as class D3. After the First World War, the class were increasing more at the countryside end of the system in their operating scope.