William Stroudley (6 March 1833 – 20 December 1889) was an English railway engineer, and was one of the most famous steam locomotive engineers of the nineteenth century, working principally for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). He designed some of the most famous and longest-lived steam locomotives of his era, several of which have been preserved. Early career Born at Sandford-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, William Stroudley began work in 1847 at the local paper mill and in the same year he was apprenticed to John Inshaw's engineering firm in Birmingham. Over the next seven years he gained a variety of engineering experience on stationary engines and steam barges. From 1854 he trained as a locomotive engineer at Swindon Works under Daniel Gooch of the Great Western Railway, but soon moved to the Great Northern Railway under Charles Sacré at their Peterborough workshops, later becoming running foreman at the motive power depot there. In 1861 he was appointed manager of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Cowlairs Works. On 19 June 1865 he was appointed locomotive and carriage superintendent of the Highland Railway at Inverness. He was unable to do any substantial work as the railway had very little money at the time, only producing one locomotive. He was however able to re-organise and modernise the company's Lochgorm Works and reduced the operating costs for the railway's existing fleet. LB&SCR career In 1870 he was appointed locomotive superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) at Brighton works following the enforced resignation of J. C. Craven. When he took office there were seventy-two different classes of locomotive in use and so there was an urgent need for standardisation to reduce operating costs. Stroudley was hampered at first by the difficult financial state of his new company, which had faced bankruptcy in 1866. However, during the 1870s and 1880s increased revenues, particularly from the growth of suburban traffic, enabled him to dramatically improve the performance and reliability of the locomotive stock by introducing a number of very successful standard classes. Locomotive classes Stroudley's first passenger locomotive design at Brighton was the two locomotives of the "Belgravia class", 2-4-0 in 1872. They were very similar to two 2-4-0 locomotives constructed at Cowlairs for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in the early 1860s when he was the works manager. They contained many features of his later designs. In the same year he