William Stroudley

Born	6 March 1833
Died	20 December 1889
Nationality	English
Employer	John Inshaw of Birmingham (apprentice); Swindon Works, GWR (under Daniel Gooch); Cowlairs Works, E&G/NBR (Manager 1861); Highland Railway (Locomotive Superintendent 1865–1869); London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (Locomotive Superintendent 1870–1889)

William Stroudley (1833–1889) was a British locomotive engineer who served as Locomotive Superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway for nineteen years from 1870 until his death in service in 1889, transforming the railway's diverse and worn-out locomotive fleet into a unified family of brilliantly maintained and beautifully proportioned machines that gave the LBSCR one of the most admired locomotive traditions in Victorian Britain.

Born at Sandford-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on 6 March 1833, Stroudley served his apprenticeship with John Inshaw of Birmingham and worked at Swindon Works under Daniel Gooch and at Cowlairs Works on the Edinburgh and Glasgow and North British railways before being appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the Highland Railway in 1865. His Highland years produced his first independent designs and established his working methods before his move to Brighton in 1870.

At Brighton Stroudley imposed a comprehensive standardisation programme on the LBSCR's mixed inherited fleet, replacing it systematically with a small range of well-proportioned types in his distinctive 'Improved Engine Green' livery — in practice a deep yellow-ochre that made Brighton locomotives immediately recognisable. His insistence on locomotive cleanliness, the careful lining-out of every engine regardless of size, and the naming of even minor shunting tanks after places on the LBSCR's system gave the railway a distinctive and consistent visual identity. His A1 Terrier 0-6-0T of 1872, a tiny but effective suburban tank, proved so well-designed that examples were still in service well into the British Railways era and ten survive in preservation. His B1 Gladstone class 0-4-2 express engine of 1882 was the first British locomotive to be preserved by a voluntary society and is now at the National Railway Museum.

Stroudley caught a chill while inspecting one of his locomotives at the Paris Exhibition of 1889 and died of pneumonia at the Hotel Continental, Paris on 20 December 1889. He was succeeded by R.J. Billinton.

Biography

William Stroudley (1833–1889) was a British locomotive engineer best known for his nineteen-year tenure as Locomotive Superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway from 1870 until his death. He gave the railway a recognisable house style, small, well-proportioned, brilliantly polished engines in 'Improved Engine Green' (in fact a deep yellow-ochre), and produced the diminutive A1 'Terrier' Class 0-6-0T of 1872, of which several survive in preservation.

Stroudley was born at Sandford-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on 6 March 1833. He served his apprenticeship with John Inshaw of Birmingham, then under Daniel Gooch at Swindon, and worked at Cowlairs (Edinburgh & Glasgow / North British) before becoming Locomotive Superintendent of the Highland Railway in 1865. There he designed his first independent class, the 2-2-2 No. 23 Lochgorm. He moved to the LBSCR's Brighton Works in 1870.

His Brighton designs ran from the 12-ton Terrier through the 0-4-2T 'D-tanks' for suburban work and the elegant B1 'Gladstone' Class 0-4-2 express engines (1882), which the Stephenson Locomotive Society later preserved as Britain's earliest preserved standard-gauge express engine. He insisted on a uniform design philosophy across all classes, leading, coupled and trailing wheel diameters in proportion, that gave the Brighton engines a distinctive family resemblance.

Stroudley caught a chill while inspecting the Brighton-built No. 1 Czar at the Paris Exhibition of 1889 and died of pneumonia at the Hôtel Continental, Paris on 20 December 1889. He was succeeded by R. J. Billinton.

Locomotives designed

E1 — Stroudley's 1874 LBSCR E1 class 0-6-0T standard goods/shunting tank, 79 built at Brighton between 1874 and 1891. The LBSCR's standard heavy shunting and short-distance goods tank engine. Some lasted into BR days and one (no. 32110, ex-LBSCR 110 Burgundy) survives at the East Somerset Railway in non-working preserved form.
LB&SCR B1 Gladstone — William Stroudley's 1882 LBSCR B1 class 0-4-2 express — the celebrated "Gladstones", named after the leading engine which was named for William Ewart Gladstone, then Prime Minister. 36 built at Brighton between 1882 and 1891. The Gladstones were Stroudley's flagship express engines and worked LBSCR Brighton main-line services until the early 1900s. The prototype, No. 214 Gladstone, was preserved by the Stephenson Locomotive Society in 1927 — the first British locomotive ever to be saved by a preservation society — and is now at the National Railway Museum, York.
LB&SCR D2 Class — Stroudley's 1876 LBSCR D2 class 0-4-2 — a tender-engine version of the D1 tank, built in small numbers for branch passenger work.
LB&SCR D3 — Robert Billinton's 1892–1896 LBSCR D3 class 0-4-4T — successors of the D1 class and the LBSCR's standard suburban tank for the late 1890s and 1900s. 36 built. None preserved.
LBSCR A1 / A1X "Terrier" Class — William Stroudley's small 0-6-0T tank engine for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, fifty engines built at Brighton Works between 1872 and 1880 and named after locations on the Brighton system. From 1911 onwards Douglas Earle Marsh rebuilt most surviving examples with larger boilers, designating the rebuilt engines class A1X. The Terriers passed through extraordinary commercial lives, many sold to railways and industries across Britain, and ten survive in preservation, the highest survival rate of any British steam class.
LBSCR Stroudley Belgravia Class — William Stroudley's 1872–73 LBSCR 0-4-2 passenger class — the prototypes for what would become Stroudley's celebrated B1 class "Gladstone" 0-4-2 expresses. The Belgravia class was a transitional design between Craven's 2-4-0s and Stroudley's mature express practice.
SECR D1 Class — Stroudley's 1873 LBSCR D1 class 0-4-2T suburban tank class, 125 built at Brighton between 1873 and 1887. Stroudley's standard suburban passenger tank, working LBSCR London suburban services for decades. The D1 evolved into the more famous D3 class.