GWR 1000 Class
Encyclopedia
The Great Western Railway
1000 Class or County Class was a class of 4-6-0
steam locomotive
. Thirty were built between 1945 and 1947, but all were withdrawn and scrapped in the early 1960s. A replica locomotive is under construction.
. He was working on a design for a new 4-6-2 (Pacific) express locomotive for the Great Western, and the County Class was a testbed for a number of the ideas he wanted to incorporate into the Pacific. There was talk of them at one point having outside Walschaerts valve gear which would have been a major break from traditional GWR designs. In the event the favoured inside Stephenson link motion
of the GWR was used, but the GWR 1500 Class
, also designed by Hawksworth, used outside Walschaerts – the only locomotive designed by the GWR to do so.
on certain members (the only GWR class ever to have double chimneys fitted by the GWR) and a high boiler pressure of 280psi (though this was later lowered to reduce maintenance costs and for fear of the increased pressure causing damage to the track through hammer blow
). Modified double chimneys were fitted to all the class from 1956. They also pulled Hawksworth slab-sided tenders, as fitted to some of his modified Halls and retro-fitted to many earlier designs; however the County tenders had a water tank six inches wider than the tenders built for the Halls and earlier designs.
The running gear of the County was almost exactly the same as Hawksworth's earlier Modified Hall Class
. The boiler
however was a slightly modified version of the LMS Stanier Class 8F
boiler, Hawksworth being able to study this design closely when 8Fs were being built at Swindon as part of the war effort.
the Executive had given the Southern Railway
permission to build its Merchant Navy Class
Pacific as Oliver Bulleid
, the designer, had claimed that they were to be for mixed traffic
work.
in 1948 all 30 Counties continued to do useful work throughout the Western Region of British Railways
, working with Castles
on expresses to and from Paddington as well as more menial freight and parcels tasks. BR gave the Counties the power classification 6MT.
that were part of George Jackson Churchward
's locomotive standardisation programme in the early days of the 20th century:
All the counties in this list were served, though in some cases indirectly, by the GWR.
, home of the Great Western Society. When completed it will take the name and number of No. 1014 County of Glamorgan in recognition of the late Dai Woodham
's Barry Scrapyard in Glamorganshire from which many withdrawn steam locomotives were saved for preservation. Also Glamorganshire County Council donated the frames and boiler for the project. The replica will have the frames from Hall Class No.7927 Willington Hall and the boiler from LMS Stanier 8F No. 48518. The boiler from the Hall will be used in the replica Grange project at the Llangollen Railway
. It will also have a number of smaller original parts off scrapped County locomotives including the chimney from No.1006 County of Cornwall.
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
1000 Class or County Class was a class of 4-6-0
4-6-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. This wheel arrangement became the second-most popular...
steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
. Thirty were built between 1945 and 1947, but all were withdrawn and scrapped in the early 1960s. A replica locomotive is under construction.
Overview
These locomotives were the result of a development project by the Chief Mechanical Engineer Frederick W. HawksworthFrederick Hawksworth
Frederick W. Hawksworth , was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway ....
. He was working on a design for a new 4-6-2 (Pacific) express locomotive for the Great Western, and the County Class was a testbed for a number of the ideas he wanted to incorporate into the Pacific. There was talk of them at one point having outside Walschaerts valve gear which would have been a major break from traditional GWR designs. In the event the favoured inside Stephenson link motion
Stephenson valve gear
The Stephenson valve gear or Stephenson link or shifting link is a simple design of valve gear that was widely used throughout the world for all kinds of steam engine. It is named after Robert Stephenson but was actually invented by his employees....
of the GWR was used, but the GWR 1500 Class
GWR 1500 Class
The Great Western Railway 1500 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive. Despite being a GWR design, all ten were built by the Western Region of British Railways in 1949.-Overview:...
, also designed by Hawksworth, used outside Walschaerts – the only locomotive designed by the GWR to do so.
Mechanical details
Innovations included double chimneysBlastpipe
The blastpipe is part of the exhaust system of a steam locomotive that discharges exhaust steam from the cylinders into the smokebox beneath the chimney in order to increase the draught through the fire.- History :...
on certain members (the only GWR class ever to have double chimneys fitted by the GWR) and a high boiler pressure of 280psi (though this was later lowered to reduce maintenance costs and for fear of the increased pressure causing damage to the track through hammer blow
Hammer blow
Hammer blow, in rail terminology, refers to the vertical forces transferred to the track by the driving wheels of a steam locomotive and some diesel locomotives. The largest proportion of this is due to the unbalanced reciprocating motion, although the piston thrusts also contribute a portion to it...
). Modified double chimneys were fitted to all the class from 1956. They also pulled Hawksworth slab-sided tenders, as fitted to some of his modified Halls and retro-fitted to many earlier designs; however the County tenders had a water tank six inches wider than the tenders built for the Halls and earlier designs.
The running gear of the County was almost exactly the same as Hawksworth's earlier Modified Hall Class
GWR 6959 Class
The Great Western Railway 6959 Class or Modified Hall Class is a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotive. They were a development by Frederick Hawksworth of Charles Collett's earlier Hall Class....
. The boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
however was a slightly modified version of the LMS Stanier Class 8F
LMS Stanier Class 8F
The London Midland and Scottish Railway's 8F class 2-8-0 heavy freight locomotive is a class of steam locomotive designed for hauling heavy freight...
boiler, Hawksworth being able to study this design closely when 8Fs were being built at Swindon as part of the war effort.
Operation
The Counties were a successful, free steaming design, well suited to express or freight work and a fitting finale to GW two-cylinder 4-6-0 development. Unfortunately in the immediate post-war period when the Government-run Railway Executive controlled Britain's railways Hawksworth was not allowed to build his Pacific, as there was no need for further express passenger locomotives. Hawksworth was forever bitter about this, as in the darkest days of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the Executive had given the Southern Railway
Southern Railway (Great Britain)
The Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent...
permission to build its Merchant Navy Class
SR Merchant Navy class
The SR Merchant Navy class , was a class of air-smoothed 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotives designed for the Southern Railway of the United Kingdom by Oliver Bulleid...
Pacific as Oliver Bulleid
Oliver Bulleid
Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid was a British railway and mechanical engineer best known as the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway between 1937 and the 1948 nationalisation, developing many well-known locomotives.- Early life and Great Northern Railway :He was born in Invercargill,...
, the designer, had claimed that they were to be for mixed traffic
Mixed-traffic locomotive
A mixed-traffic locomotive is one designed to be capable of hauling both passenger trains and freight trains. The term is mostly used in the United Kingdom and those nations following British practice...
work.
British Railways
After the nationalisation of Britain's railwaysTransport Act 1947
The Transport Act 1947 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under it the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a new British Transport Commission for operation...
in 1948 all 30 Counties continued to do useful work throughout the Western Region of British Railways
Western Region of British Railways
The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992...
, working with Castles
GWR 4073 Class
The GWR 4073 Class or Castle class locomotives are a group of 4-6-0 steam locomotives of the Great Western Railway. They were originally designed by the railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer, Charles Collett, for working the company's express passenger trains.-History:A development of the earlier...
on expresses to and from Paddington as well as more menial freight and parcels tasks. BR gave the Counties the power classification 6MT.
Identification
Although not as popular as Castles or Kings amongst GW enthusiasts, they were very easy to identify because of their unique full-length splasher over the wheels (rather than having a separate splasher for each wheel). These were a feature unique to the Counties. Hawksworth no doubt got the idea from the streamlining experiments on a Castle and a King in the 1930s which carried similar splashers.Stock list
The locomotives were given names from an extinct class of 4-4-0 tender locomotiveGWR 3800 Class
The Great Western Railway County Class were a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives for express passenger train work introduced in 1904 in a batch of ten...
that were part of George Jackson Churchward
George Jackson Churchward
George Jackson Churchward CBE was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway in the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1922.-Early career:...
's locomotive standardisation programme in the early days of the 20th century:
| Number | Name | Built | Withdrawn | Scrapped | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | County of Middlesex | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
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| 1001 | County of Buckingham | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
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| 1002 | County of Berks | Ward, Sheffield | |||
| 1003 | County of Wilts | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
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| 1004 | County of Somerset | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
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| 1005 | County of Devon | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
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| 1006 | County of Cornwall | Cooper, Sharpness | |||
| 1007 | County of Brecknock | King, Norwich | |||
| 1008 | County of Cardigan | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
|||
| 1009 | County of Carmarthen | Swindon Works Swindon Works Swindon railway works were built by the Great Western Railway in 1841 in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire.-History:In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol. Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.From 1836, Brunel had been buying... |
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| 1010 | County of Caernarvon | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
Name originally spelled County of Carnarvon |
||
| 1011 | County of Chester | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
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| 1012 | County of Denbigh | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
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| 1013 | County of Dorset | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
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| 1014 | County of Glamorgan | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
Replica under construction | ||
| 1015 | County of Gloucester | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
|||
| 1016 | County of Hants | Ward, Sheffield | |||
| 1017 | County of Hereford | Ward, Sheffield | |||
| 1018 | County of Leicester | King, Norwich | |||
| 1019 | County of Merioneth | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Great Bridge |
|||
| 1020 | County of Monmouth | Hayes, Bridgend | |||
| 1021 | County of Montgomery | Hayes, Bridgend | |||
| 1022 | County of Northampton | Ward, Sheffield | |||
| 1023 | County of Oxford | Swindon Works | |||
| 1024 | County of Pembroke | Swindon Works | |||
| 1025 | County of Radnor | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Great Bridge |
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| 1026 | County of Salop | Ward, Sheffield | |||
| 1027 | County of Stafford | Cooper, Sharpness | |||
| 1028 | County of Warwick | Birds, Risca | |||
| 1029 | County of Worcester | Cashmore John Cashmore Ltd John Cashmore Ltd was a company based at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales... , Newport |
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All the counties in this list were served, though in some cases indirectly, by the GWR.
Preservation
None of the original locomotives survived. However a replica is being built at the Didcot Railway CentreDidcot Railway Centre
Didcot Railway Centre, located in the town of Didcot in the English county of Oxfordshire, is based around the site of a comprehensive "engine shed" which became redundant after the nationalisation of the UK railways, due to the gradual changeover from steam to diesel motive power.-Description:The...
, home of the Great Western Society. When completed it will take the name and number of No. 1014 County of Glamorgan in recognition of the late Dai Woodham
Dai Woodham
Dai Woodham, MBE, BEM , born David Lloyd Victor Woodham, is remembered by many steam railway enthusiasts as the man who saved over 200 former British Railways steam locomotives from the scrap heap...
's Barry Scrapyard in Glamorganshire from which many withdrawn steam locomotives were saved for preservation. Also Glamorganshire County Council donated the frames and boiler for the project. The replica will have the frames from Hall Class No.7927 Willington Hall and the boiler from LMS Stanier 8F No. 48518. The boiler from the Hall will be used in the replica Grange project at the Llangollen Railway
Llangollen Railway
The Llangollen Railway is a volunteer-run preserved railway in Denbighshire, Wales, which operates between Llangollen and Carrog; at long, it is the longest preserved standard gauge line in Wales and operates daily in Summer as well as weekends throughout the Winter months using a wide variety of...
. It will also have a number of smaller original parts off scrapped County locomotives including the chimney from No.1006 County of Cornwall.
External links
- http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/m_in_cty.htm
- http://www.hmilburn.easynet.co.uk/enthuse/steam/locos/gwr/1000.htm
- Details of County to be built at Didcot Railway Centre