This class was intended to replace the smaller
Robert Billinton C2 class 0-6-0 on the heaviest freight services. However, although they had an effective boiler, their performance proved to be disappointing, and the fuel consumption was high. Rather than building any further examples Marsh preferred to rebuild the existing locomotives into the C2X class. The members of the C3 class therefore spent their days on secondary freight trains in mid Sussex. Seven of the class spent most of their lives at
Horsham and as a result the class was nicknamed "Horsham Goods". The boiler designed by Marsh for the C3 class was later used with considerably more success on the
SR Z class 0-8-0 of 1929. ==Grouping and Nationalisation==