The L.B.S.C.R “L” class of 4-6-4 tank locomotives were designed by L.B. Billinton. Baltic 
being the European name for the 4-6-4 wheel arrangement. Only seven locomotives were 
built and they were used for express passengers service between Brighton and London and 
were all worked based at Brighton loco shed and worked only by Brighton Enginemen.
After the introduction of electrification of the London to Brighton line in 1933. These 
locomotives were then employed on working express trains between London to Eastbourne 
and still crewed by Brighton Enginemen. With the electrification of the East coast in 1935 
these locomotives were made redundant owing to the limited route availability and therefore 
they were sent to Eastleigh Loco works to be modified into N15x class locomotives and spent the next 20 years working semi-fast services on the South Western services from London Waterloo. 

THE BRIGHTON BALTIC ENGINEMEN 

1914 - 1935 

In the early days of the Baltics, each one had its own driver,

No.327, “Charles C Macrae” was in charge of Driver Ted Purser, also tried out all the other Baltic tank engines when they were new.

Ted later became a locomotive inspector.

No.328, Driver Fred Streeter, a driver of very short stature and his fireman Osborne.
These two engines had the driver's name painted up in the cab. By the time the second batch appeared Nos 329-333, after the First World War, the practice of "one engine, one driver" had been discontinued, and no more names appeared in the cabs.

The following drivers, however, kept fairly well to the engines mentioned, though it is possible other drivers handled them when their "regulars" had a rest day or were on sick leave.

No.329, “Stephenson” was allocated to Drivers Arthur Rodgers, Freddie Groves and Jack Yeates.

No.330, was allocated to Driver Fred Christmas, and his fireman was Fred Marchant and later on Reg Moore. Fred Hutchings

No.331, was allocated when new to Driver Charlie Grainger and fireman G. Burtenshaw.

No.332, was allocated to Driver Arthur Huntley, Harry Hoare and fireman Jack Monet.

No.333, “Remembrance” when new, was given to Harry Funnell; and his fireman was Horace/Harry Fleet. It was also handled by Fred Horsman and his fireman, S. Clark.

These drivers were the “regular” enginemen who drove this engine. The Drivers Harry Challen & Fred Wilson taking over on rest days and probably assisting on other locos as well.

This extract features the Brighton Baltic Tank Enginemen from 1914-33 and the enginemen 
that worked on these locomotives. The information has been extracted from a book called 
The Brighton Baltics by A.C. Perryman.

The author as tried to find anyone of the old drivers who handled these machines in their tank engine days, but at the time of writing this article they had departed from this world. However he did, however, find one who had fired them in their heyday. The author would only identify the engineman by his first name Jim. This was due that at the time of writing the engineman was still alive.

Jim started his career as a cleaner with the old L.B.&S.C.R. early in 1914 and within a few 
months the Great War was to burst upon us. The effect of this at Brighton Running Shed, 
where he worked, was, to use his own words "round the clock manning", and he found 
himself transferred to the office as a sort of general messenger boy. His duty was from 7.30 
p.m. until 8.00 a.m. the following morning. Jim was-a passed fireman by 1916, but there was not always a loco available for him and then he would be confined to the yard, cleaning, or footplate duty in the yard. Pay for this was 3/3d. per day! If he managed to pass the yard 
signal, and get out on the running road, he qualified for "firing pay which put it up to 3/9d. 
per day. A top link fireman was paid 4/6d. per day, and a top link driver 8/- per day. "Days” 
then were about 10 hours.

The Baltics apparently were not too popular with the drivers, not because they were not up to their job. This they did very well, but not very economically. The office had worked out a 
coal allowance for each class, and drivers werepaid 1d. Per cwt. for all they could save out of this figure.

It would depend, of course, on what sort of duty you were on, but 56 Ibs. per mile was not uncommon! Needless to say, Baltic drivers did not figure very high up on the coal bonus sheets. All sorts of dodges were used to try to boost this, and Jim remembers his driver stopping their engine level with a wagon of coal in Victoria yard. Jim was sent up on the wagon and instructed to pass as many large lumps over as he could. It was large stuff and jolly good coal apparently. It was destined for one of the London Hotels. Anyway, they helped themselves to enough to make a difference to the amount officially burnt on the journey. 

On the Baltics, the cab floor-boards tended to shrink a bit in service, with the heat, so that 
coal dust fell through thejoints, on to the framing below. On the faster sections Jim says the 
draught coming through, was very unpleasant, and brought some coal dust with it!   .

Fred Christmas decided he'd do something about it, and managed to "acquire" several of the 
afore-mentioned carpets.These the crew placed strategically over the board joints and 
conditions were greatly improved. Not for long however! An eagle-eyed loco inspector 
spotted them, and asked a lot of awkward questions concerning their origin! The result was 
that they lost their first class carpets, and had to revert to bare boards again! 

Jim also had a turn on 329 Stephenson with Arthur Rodgers. This latter man was a real 
“fireman killer”, the only driver he was ever with, who would have the regulator right over 
on the second valve, going down from Balcombe Tunnel to Horley. Jim swears that they must have done ninety down there! Rodgers liked Jim's firing, and asked him if he would like to be his regular fireman and he would get him transferred to 329. As Jim was unable to put the shovel down, until they cleared Balcombe Tunnel going "up", he declined the offer! Jim says that 329 was fitted with valves of the "trick" pattern and when starting away from East Croydon, under the bridge, with a down train, Arthur Rodgers would open the regulator wide, many times hitting him with the other end of the handle! 329 would then momentarily “Set back into the train" before taking it away without a trace of slipping. At this time, on the Brighton, the first class compartments had a lush carpet on the floor, with the Company’s initials in monogram form, worked into the pattern.

With 56 1/2 tons on the coupled wheels, and 22" x 28" cylinders the Baltics could get away 
rapidly with a heavy train and Jim says that some drivers considered them superior to the 
"King Arthurs" in this respect. They were also very smooth riding machines, vastly superior 
to the "Arthurs", At one time Jim was posted to "King Arthur" No.797, andsays it so shook 
him up that he was laid up for 3 months. He asked to be posted back on Baltics upon 
returning to duty. He considers all locos with no carrying wheels under the cab to be “rough 
riders".