Model of a useful and long-lived design of tank engine, serving with the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, later Southern Ralway and British Railways. Tank engines have always been the workhorses of the British railway network, from shunting wagons to hauling local goods and passenger trains on main and branch lines.
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E4 Class 0-6-2T is side tank engine with six coupled driving wheels and a carrying axle under the bunker, allowing for extra coal to be carried. Designed by Robert J Billinton 75 locomotives of the class were built between 1897 and 1903, working local passenger, freight and branchline trains for over 50 years with the LB&SC, Southern and British Railways. One example is preserved on the Bluebell Railway.
This model numbered 2517 represents a member of the class following the Southern Railways' comprehensive renumbering scheme implemented around 1930 to bring the locomotives of all the consitituent companies into one numbering sequence. 2517 had been LB&SCR 517 named Limpsfield and continued into British Railways service, being withdrawn as 32517 in 1959. Era 3. 1823-1948