This image appear in 'O J Morris's Southern railways 1919-1959' (Middleton Press) where the author says 'Mr Maunsell would not have been amused if he had known what went on at Bognor shed on Sunday 5th May 1934. O J Morris and the locomotive foreman, Mr Pelham Maitland, have arranged a marvellous scene, goodness knows how long it took'. Only No 2299 appears to be in steam and were those 'D-Tanks' always so clean?

Four Stroudley D1 0-4-2Ts Nos 2605, B614, 2299 and 2616 at Bognor shed on 5th May 1934. We think these were all to power some of the local passenger workings prior to the Portsmouth No 2 electrification. Bradley's Oct 1937 allocations state that 2220/29/69/74/97, 2357 and 2631 were all allocated here, which is seven locos. None of these are in this slightly earlier photo but it does indicate that Bognor shed was well provided with them before electrification. Littlehampton, a few miles up the coast, had even more in 1937 so they were quite common round that way at that time.


Photo: O.J. Morris/Rail Archive Stephenson