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The GWR 2721 Class was a class of 0-6-0 ST steam locomotives. They were designed by William Dean and built at the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway between 1897 and 1901.
They were not a new design, being a straightforward development of the 120-strong 1854 Class dating back to 1890. This lineage had begun with George Armstrong's 645 Class in 1872 and continued via the 1813 Class (in 1882), the 1854 Class, and finally ended in 1948 with the GWR 9400 Class. The differences over 76 years were undeniably a gradual evolution, with increases in boiler pressure and heating surface the more important, enclosed cabs and larger bunkers cosmetic but functional. The biggest change was the fitting of a Belpaire firebox necessitating a pair of pannier tanks, as the square-topped firebox is not compatible with a curved saddle tank. Highlighting the gradual nature of the changes are the subtle differences between the 1854 and 2721 classes, confined to a small increase in wheel size by 1+1⁄2 inches (38.1 mm), fluted rods and coil springs all round, at least then new. When later rebuilt with pannier tanks they were the direct predecessors of the GWR 5700 Class of 1929. No. 2756 was sold to the Rhondda And Swansea Bay Railway, becoming their No. 33. It regained its old number when the R&SBR was absorbed by the Great Western in 1922.
Pannier tank 2785 was severely damaged in an air raid at Newton Abbott in 1940, but was repaired and returned to service. [1]
Forty-three of them survived into British Railways (BR) ownership in 1948, by which time all had been rebuilt with pannier tanks. Their numbers were 2721–2800 (the last being renumbered 2700 in 1912 to make room for the pioneer 2-8-0 GWR 2800 Class). Withdrawals started in 1945 and were complete by 1950 by which time the last of the replacement 57xx's (in the 96xx series) were in service.
Hornby Railways manufacture a model of the 2721 in OO gauge.
The first Locomotives of the Great Western Railway (GWR) were specified by Isambard Kingdom Brunel but Daniel Gooch was soon appointed as the railway's Locomotive Superintendent. He designed several different 7 ft 1⁄4 in broad gauge types for the growing railway, such as the Firefly and later Iron Duke Class 2-2-2s. In 1864 Gooch was succeeded by Joseph Armstrong who brought his standard gauge experience to the workshops at Swindon. To replace some of the earlier locomotives, he put broad gauge wheels on his standard gauge locomotives and from this time on all locomotives were given numbers, including the broad gauge ones that had previously carried just names.
The GWR 5700 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive built by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and British Railways (BR) between 1929 and 1950. With 863 built, they were the most prolific class of the GWR, and one of the most numerous classes of British steam locomotive.
The GWR 1400 Class is a class of steam locomotive designed by the Great Western Railway for branch line passenger work. It was originally classified as the 4800 Class when introduced in 1932, and renumbered in 1946.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 1500 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive. Despite being a GWR Hawksworth design, all ten were completed under the administration of the Western Region of British Railways in 1949, just after Nationalisation.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 1600 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive designed for light branch lines, short-distance freight transfers and shunting duties.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 9400 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive, used for shunting and banking duties.
The 1361 Class were small 0-6-0ST steam locomotives built by the Great Western Railway at their Swindon Works, England, mainly for shunting in docks and other sidings where track curvature was too tight for large locomotives.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 1366 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotives built in 1934. They were a useful design and because of their light weight and short wheelbase and were often used on dockside branches or other lines with sharp curvatures.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 5400 Class was a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive. They were similar in appearance to many other GWR tank engines but smaller than the ubiquitous GWR 5700 Class.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 6400 Class is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive introduced by Charles Collett in 1932. All 40 examples were 'auto-fitted' – equipped with the remote-control equipment needed for working autotrains.
Charles Benjamin Collett was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941. He designed the GWR's 4-6-0 Castle and King Class express passenger locomotives.
Frederick William Hawksworth, was the last Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway (GWR).
The GWR 0-6-0PT, is a type of steam locomotive built by the British Great Western Railway with the water tanks carried on both sides of the boiler, in the manner of panniers. They were used for local, suburban and branch line passenger and goods traffic, for shunting duties, and as banker engines on inclines. The early examples, such as the 1901 and 2021 classes, were rebuilt from saddle or side tanks when the locos received a Belpaire firebox – this type of firebox has a square top and is incompatible with a curved saddle tank. This process mostly took place during the tenure at Swindon Works of George Jackson Churchward. Only a very small number of saddle tank locomotives escaped rebuilding as panniers, notably the 1361 Class built new under Churchward in 1910, by which date a few of the 1813 Class had already been rebuilt as pannier tanks.
The GWR 1901 Class was a class of 120 small 0-6-0ST steam locomotives. Numbered 1901–2020, they were designed by George Armstrong and built at the Wolverhampton railway works, England, of the Great Western Railway between 1881 and 1895. They had wheels of 4 ft 0 in (1.219 m) diameter and a coupled wheelbase of 13 ft 8 in (4.17 m).
The GWR 2021 Class was a class of 140 0-6-0ST steam locomotives. They were built at the Wolverhampton railway works of the Great Western Railway between 1897 and 1905. 1897 was the very year of George Armstrong's retirement, so it is uncertain if the design should be attributed to him or to his superior at Swindon, William Dean.
The GWR 645 Class was a class of 0-6-0ST designed by George Armstrong and built at the Wolverhampton railway works of the Great Western Railway (GWR). Thirty-six were constructed between 1872-3, of which three were built for the South Wales Mineral Railway (SWMR), two for the Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway (C&CR) and the remainder for the GWR. In essence, they were saddle tank versions of his GWR 633 Class of 1871. From 1878, a further 72 of the class, partially enlarged, were added in the 1501 numbering sequence. Unlike the originals, the "1501"s had full-length saddle tanks from the start.
The 1016 Class consisted of sixty double framed 0-6-0ST locomotives designed by George Armstrong and built at the Wolverhampton Works of the Great Western Railway between 1867 and 1871. Like the earlier 302 Class of Joseph Armstrong, the 1016s had 4 ft 6 in (1.372 m) wheels and a 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) wheelbase, dimensions that would remain traditional for the larger GWR pannier tanks right through to Charles Collett's 5700 Class, and with little change to Frederick Hawksworth's 9400 Class of 1947.
The Great Western Railway's 1813 Class was a series of 40 0-6-0T built at Swindon Works in two lots of 20 engines each. No. 1813 was sold to the Pembroke & Tenby Railway in May 1883 becoming No.7 Holmwood, retaining this name after being absorbed by the GWR. Nearly all of these engines spent their lives on the GWR's Southern Division.
The GWR 1854 Class was a class of 0-6-0T steam locomotives designed by William Dean and constructed at the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway. The class used similar inside frames and chassis dimensions to the 1813 Class of 1882-4. In this they differed from the intervening 1661 Class, which had reverted to the double frames of the Armstrong era. Thus the 1854 Class belongs to the "mainstream" of GWR 0-6-0T classes that leads towards the larger GWR pannier tanks of the 20th century.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) experimented with oil burning steam locomotives at two points in its history. A single experimental tank engine was constructed to burn oil in 1902, and 37 engines of four different classes were converted to burn oil between 1946 and 1950. Neither experiment resulted in the long-term use of oil as fuel for steam locomotives. A single pannier tank locomotive was also converted under British Rail in 1958.