Locomotives of the Southern Railway (UK)

It abandoned the 'Leader' class experiments, and Bulleid left the UK to carry forward his unusual locomotive designs in Ireland.

With the heavy emphasis on electrification for the London suburban area and the Brighton mainline, there was little need for new steam locomotive designs.

The main steam tasks were boat trains (Dover, Folkestone and Newhaven), West of England, Kent services and freight.

Due to the hangover from SE&CR days, most of the lines in Kent were of fairly light construction and would not take the weight of a modern express locomotive until well into the 1930s.

This problem persisted into British Railways days until eventually the tunnels were single tracked, giving clearance for normal stock.