West Brighton proved to be such a success that in 1894 R J Billinton brought out sixteen more, virtually the same, locomotives and classified all seventeen of them as Class E3. Originally fitted with boilers of 160 lb pressure, these were changed in later years for a Marsh boiler with the smokebox on a saddle and 170 lb pressure. They were virtually all named after Sussex villages although N°453 Broadbridge was erroneously given the name Charles C Macrae in later years, a mistake that lasted just long enough for the official photograph to be taken. The negative of this photograph, however, was destroyed in 1924. All of the class, designed as goods engines, performed so well that they were frequently to be found on passenger services which led to Billinton designing the E4 class, an almost identical locomotive but with larger, 5' diameter, driving wheels.