Thomas The E2 Class Engine

Please follow me on social media Facebook:-   / travelandtrainsadventure   Twitter:-   / judithschooling   Instagram: -   / judithschooling   The name “Thomas”, especially in Railway circles, will instantly conjure up images of the famous and well-loved little locomotive - “Thomas the tank Engine”. This video will explore the real-life unit on which Thomas was based. The E2, 0-6-0 T steamer designed by a Billinton and built in the 3 year period between 1913 and 1916. The E2 was actually derived from the E1 class, which by 1910 were proving to be problematic, worn out and no longer really fit for purpose. They suffered from inadequacies when it came to haulage of larger trains. There were some moves to re-build the E1 with a larger boiler to try to address these issues and so the E1X was born. However only one of these prototypes was ever constructed. Following this Billinton designed and had built it’s successor – the E2. These intrinsically more powerful units were manufactured at the Brighton Railway works. This utilised an I2 boiler but yet again there were some issues with the design with the water tanks being too small and a lack of water supply to the boiler a negative aspect of the design. A revision of the design resulted in larger tanks being fitted so alleviating this issue. Being a smaller engine there were limitations on it’s use. Ideally suited to short-haul operations, this E2 model was mainly used for shunting operations and short -distance freight movements. There was an experiment with passenger traffic, with two E2’s located at the mid-point in a 6 coach set but never proved very successful and was curtailed due to lack of fuel capacity. On the electrification of the Brighton line in 1936 these little engines became redundant and were moved to shunting duties at Hearn Hill and Victoria station and Dover for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR).the second world War saw them replacing the SR-Z class at Hither Green yard. The E2 was also used at Southampton docks but due to their longer wheelbase of 16 feet their usefulness proved lesser due to the tight curves of the dock’s tracks. More suited to the task were the smaller 10 and 11 foot wheelbase units – the S100 USA and the Austerity 0-6-0 saddle tanks. Sadly the E2 class was fully withdrawn from service by April 1963 and all units were scrapped with unfortunately no survivors. If it wasn’t for Reginald Payne and Reverend W Awdry, this lovely little engine would have disappeared into obscurity. Thank you Gentlemen for saving him. We hope you enjoyed hearing about the E2 class and it’s place in our lives. Thank you for watching, Please like share with your friends and colleagues and subscribe to our channel for more. #ClassE2 #Thomasthetankengine #TrainsTrainsTrains