London & South Western class 415 “Radial Tanks”

For the suburban lines in London, William Adams provided his class 46, which had outside cylinders, with an additional trailing axle in order to be able to accommodate larger coal supplies. Since this axle was in a radial axle box, the locomotive was nicknamed the “Radial Tank”. Four manufacturers delivered a total of 71 locomotives, the last of which had a boiler pressure of 160 instead of 140 psi. As early as 1895, the locomotives were replaced by other locomotives in their original area of operation, after which they were relocated to branch lines in rural areas. After the first were retired in 1916, the largest number only disappeared between 1923 and 1928 under the Southern Railway. Three locomotives even survived on the Lyme Regis branch until 1961, because initially no other suitable locomotives were found for the tight curves. One of these today belongs to the Bluebell Railway but is not operational.