Description

One of Britain’s most handsome steam locomotives, the South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SE&CR) Wainwright D-class 4-4-0. The train is a North Kent coast express from London Victoria to Ramsgate Harbour station circa 1911.
The construction of the initial 20 engines was shared between Ashford railway works and the Glasgow builder: Sharp, Stewart and Company. The first of the class to enter service in 1901 was a Glasgow product, and by 1907 51 were in traffic. Of these 21 were Ashford built while the rest were supplied by outside contractors. The D-class was a Harry Wainwright design and he was responsible for the overall look of the engine. The detail work was undertaken by Robert Surtees, his chief draughtsman at Ashford works.
Initially the D-class was put to work on the Kent coast and Hastings services out of London. By the 1930s the largest allocation of D class 4-4-0s was at Gillingham depot in Kent but they had by now been reduced to secondary train duties and were now carrying the livery of the Southern Railway. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939 some of the D class were placed into storage. Then in 1941 others were transferred to Nine Elms depot. A handful were based at Redhill on the Reading-Tonbridge cross-country line.
In 1948 British Railways inherited 28 of the Wainwright 4-4-0s. Their final years saw them concentrated at Guildford shed and the last of the D-class, No.31075, was withdrawn from there on 15 December 1956.

• Signed print on 190gsm gloss paper.
• Image size: 430mm x 330mm
• Overall size: 500mm x 400mm