The class was designed by William Martley and introduced in 1873, intended for the heaviest express services between London and Dover.

[1] The LCDR was successful in winning a government contract for the delivery of British mails to the Continent from the South Eastern Railway (SER) in 1873 and required a new class of locomotives for the mail trains as the punctuality of these services was essential to its retention.

These were named Europa, Asia, Africa and America but, like other LCDR locomotives built before 1875, were unnumbered when new.

Construction of these was halted, but eventually restarted and completed in 1876 by Martley’s successor William Kirtley, although the order for the three remaining examples was cancelled.

[3] These numbers were increased by 459 to become 512–517 following the amalgamation of the LCDR and SER to become the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1899.