LBSCR D1 0-4-2T No B255 with a goods train from the Admiralty Victualling Stores runs along Grove Street, Deptford in 1937. Bradley has a few comments about this class in the late 'thirties. Among them is the fact that this appears to be one of only two D1's still bearing a B-prefixed number by this time. The latter gives D-tank allocations for October 1937 - B255 was at New Cross, and was the only one in the London area at the time, and the last of the class still in traffic with a B-number (the other example, B633, was at Exmouth Junction as a stationary boiler). It goes on to say that one of B255's diagrammed workings was the " . . . bi-monthly journey to Deptford Wharf and the Government Supply Reserve Depot"


The fact that it carried its letter-prefixed number for as long as it did means this image combines what must be a somewhat rare combination of such a number - replaced by the four-digit scheme from 1931 - with the small lettering for wagons introduced around the end of 1936 or early '37. The leading wagon, carrying that small lettering, looks like an ex-NER diagram G2 van, still with its roof door.



The Victoria pub, though closed was still standing last September, but the houses next to it are gone and a srapyard is in their place.

Photo: O.J. Morris/Rail Archive Stephenson