As well as being what Brian Haresnape describes as an able and professional engineer, William Stroudley was very much also an artist. I don't doubt those who have seen any of his locomotives pictured or, better still, in preservation, even those enthusiasts who have little interest in the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway or any railway south of the Thames, would disagree with that. The minute A Class ‘Terriers’ and the ground-breaking B, the ‘Gladstones’, are the best-known of all the engines he introduced to the Brighton. But I would suggest the D Class 0-4-2T of 1873 epitomised his approach to locomotive design, for they were exactly suited to the work for which they were designed, tough, durable and in some cases of remarkable longevity.
Born at Sandford-upon-Thames in…