At the same time the Board of Directors was anxious to reap some of the financial benefits of amalgamation by closing the LCDR Longhedge Railway Works.

[1] During the first years of the SECR, express passenger services were well served by Wainwright's 'D' and 'E' 4-4-0 classes; however loads continued to increase and by 1912 the designer realised that he would soon need more powerful locomotives.

After Wainwright's departure his assistant, Robert Surtees, made further detailed changes – slightly enlarging the boiler, firebox and wheels – and substituting a Robinson design superheater, before placing an order for twelve examples with Beyer Peacock for delivery by the end of June 1914.

After Richard Maunsell took office in January 1914, he agreed to the ordering of a further ten with minor detail differences and Schmidt superheaters from Borsig of Berlin.

As a result of the success of these changes Maunsell later gradually increased the boiler pressure of the ‘L class’ and fitted them with smaller cylinders and his own superheater over the next two decades as they passed through the workshops for other reasons.

By this time improvements had been made to the LCDR main line to Dover and Ramsgate and so they continued to be used on these services until after the Second World War and the Nationalisation of British Railways in 1948.