The construction of the initial 20 engines was shared between Ashford railway works and the Glasgow builder, Sharp, Stewart and Company.

These bigger engines were needed to cope with increasing loads on the Kent Coast Line through Chatham.

By the 1930s the largest allocation of D class 4-4-0s was at Gillingham depot in Kent but they had by now been reduced to secondary train duties and were now carrying the livery of the Southern Railway.

Dapol, in association with Rails of Sheffield and Locomotion, released a model of the D Class in OO scale in 2021.

[4] On February 22, 2022, Dapol and Rails of Sheffield announced a further model of the D1 Class, which was released in June 2023.