Some snippets of "Fenchurchiana"

The Southern Railway loco No. 2636 (formerly L.B.& S.C.R. No. 72 Fenchurch) is one of the 0-6-0 "Terrier" tanks of Stroudley's design, and was built in 1872, at a cost of £500. In accordance with general practice, its actuarial value was set at 30 years, so that by 1898 the then L.B.& S.C.R. would shortly have been entitled to replace it by a new loco. In that year, its value having presumably been written down to about £65, it was sold to the Newhaven Harbour Company for £500. As it was a secondhand locomotive, that company estimated its useful life as 20 years, and in 1922, therefore, it should have ceased to have any financial value in the books of the company. In 1926 the Newhaven Harbour Company was taken over by the Southern Railway, and the value of the veteran engine was then placed at £575. The engine is still at work, and it would be interesting to know at what it is now valued, after 68 years of active service. It carried its original name, Fenchurch, until 1925, and is still colloquially so called at Newhaven.