the range 31911–31925. Operational details The class was mainly used around London working from Hither Green, Norwood and Feltham yards. They were also used on inter-company/regional transfer freight duties over the West London Line to Old Oak Common, Willesden, Cricklewood and Ferme Park marshalling yards. The class was generally well liked by their crews apart from the fact that the driver was on the right hand side of the Eastleigh batch, which made accurate stopping difficult when signalling was predominantly on the left on the Southern network. This would have meant that the fireman was frequently utilised as lookout on the left hand side. In 1948 there was a chronic shortage of large passenger tank locomotives on the un-electrified lines of the former London Brighton and South Coast Railway. As a result, trials of the class were made with passenger stock between Victoria railway station and Tunbridge Wells West railway station via the Oxted Line. However, like the K and K1 classes the W class were found to be unstable at speed and were banned from use on passenger trains. Withdrawal The class began to be withdrawn from service in 1963, with the last removed from the books in 1964. No examples of this class of locomotive survived into preservation. References W 2-6-4T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1932 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives Freight locomotives