Of these, the R was the most successful design, and was continued in production (in the form of the LCDR R1 class) by Harry Wainwright after the amalgamation of the railways in 1899.

Following Wainwright's retirement Richard Maunsell discovered that sixty-six had been ordered and their components built, but had not been erected earlier.

After 1929, they also began to be used on the Central Section (the former lines of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway) in East Sussex), where they replaced withdrawn D3 class locomotives.

Forty five of the survivors were equipped for push-pull train working between 1949 and 1960, and the class was increasingly used on motor-trains on rural branches.

With the completion of the Kent electrification scheme between 1959 and 1962, most of the surviving members of the class were withdrawn, except for a few examples working the non-electrified lines between Tunbridge Wells and Three Bridges.

Later it was preserved at the South Eastern Steam Centre at Ashford, but in 1975 the Trustees decided that the locomotive would have more scope for running if based on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex.