Richard Maunsell therefore ordered the rebuilding of one example with larger cylinders, boiler and firebox, while at the same time reducing unnecessary weight elsewhere in the locomotive.

[4] The class was used on the London to Dover and Folkestone boat trains and other Kent coast expresses on the South Eastern Main Line.

Locomotive No 506 was used to haul the train containing the Cavell Van ( No 132) bringing back the remains of the Unknown Warrior from Dover to London on 10 November 1920.

[citation needed] In the years immediately following the grouping of the SECR with other railways to form the Southern Railway (UK) in 1923 the E class locomotives continued with their existing duties, but in 1931 three examples were transferred to the Central Section to assist with expresses on the Brighton Main Line, followed by further examples.

For a while they were used on expresses to Ramsgate but in the 1930s several of the class were transferred to the former London Brighton and South Coast Railway main lines in Sussex.