Spa Valley Railway

Spa Valley Railway, West Station, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 5QY
Telephone: 01892 537715
Email enquiries@spavalleyrailway.co.uk

(Photo ©M. Dives)

LB&SCR Class E4 No. 32473 "Birch Grove"

LB&SCR E4 0-6-2T Built June 1898,
Brighton Works, England
Length - 35ft 3in
Wheel Diameter - 5ft 0in
Cylinders - 17½in x 26in
Inside Stephenson valve gear
Tractive Effort - 18,045lbs
Weight in working order - 58 tons
Boiler Pressure - 160 PSI
Water Capacity - 1,408 Gallons
Coal Capacity - 3 Tons

Introduced into service in 1897, the E4s were Robert Billinton's passenger version of the earlier built E3 class, but with higher pressure boilers and larger driving wheels. Known as 'Radial Tanks' (after the radial truck positioned under the cab and bunker), the engines could be found at work on suburban passenger services and some branchline goods trains. Most engines were introduced into service painted in Stroudley Improved Engine Green and with names after towns or villages in the Brighton region. Birch Grove being a tiny hamlet just North of Horsted Keynes. Marsh repainted them into umber and removed the names in 1906.

As the class underwent overhauls, the cylinders were resized from 18in to 17½in. Marsh also converted four into the E4X class which featured higher pressure boilers and larger cylinders. Most E4s received modifications throughout their lives, although these never met the full specification of the E4X. As the electric units took over London suburban services, the E4s were quickly displaced to countryside branchline trains and shunting yards, where they were finally withdrawn from service in June 1963.

The E4s proved to be a very popular class of locomotive and some even strayed away Brighton territory, as far as Eastleigh, Waterloo and Tonbridge. Twelve travelled across the channel between 1917 and 1919 to see use in France, whilst one was trialled on the Isle of Wight railways, where it was intended to send some of the class to cure a locomotive shortage. However the class were found to be too big for the lines on the island and the move was never pursued. All but one made it into BR service and were mostly painted in plain BR black, although some were lined.

32473 (formerly Birch Grove) was one of the first Brighton engines to receive Southern Railway livery in February 1924 as B473. The engine was purchased straight out of BR service in 1962 and moved to the Bluebell Railway where it saw service for a decade, prior to withdrawal for a major overhaul. An overhaul began but this stalled when repairs became too extensive. The engine remained out of service for around 25 years, until a bequest saw it overhauled and returned to service in 1998.

The engine made history in 1999 when it travelled to the Isle of Wight Railway to offer enthusiasts the chance to experience what might have been had the class been suitable for the Island lines. It has since made a subsequent visit to the Island as well as the Severn Valley, Keighley and Worth Valley and Mid Hants Railways.

The engine was repainted in early 2005 into lined BR black with the early crest, which is the livery that the it visited the Spa Valley, in May 2007, for our 10th anniversary steam gala.

Livery - BR Lined Black with Early Crest

Current Status - Visited from Bluebell Railway from 19th until 28th May

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