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The Great Western Railway 3800 Class, also known as the County Class, were a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives for express passenger train work introduced in 1904 in a batch of ten. Two more batches followed in 1906 and 1912 with minor differences. They were designed by George Jackson Churchward, who used standard components to produce a four-coupled version of his Saint Class 4-6-0s.
The first locomotive, No. 3473 County of Middlesex, was built at Swindon Works in May 1904, with the following nine completed by October 1904. [2] They were initially fitted with parallel-sided copper-capped chimneys, which were soon replaced by tapered cast iron chimneys. [3] The second batch, of twenty, were built between October and December 1906. This batch had tapered cast iron chimneys from the start. [4] A third and last batch of ten were built between December 1911 and February 1912. [5] On these the footplates had curved drop ends at the cab and front bufferbeam. [6] They were also fitted from new with a superheater and top feed. [5] Chimneys were a larger version of the copper-capped type of the first batch. [3]
Coupled wheels had independent springing, without the compensating beams fitted between the axleboxes on Churchward's 4-6-0s. [7] The cylinder block, including the piston valves and smokebox saddle, was constructed from two castings from the same pattern, bolted back to back, each casting containing one half of the saddle. [2] The cab, boiler and coupled wheels were attached to plate frames. The cylinder block was carried on two bar frames, bolted to the front end of the plate frames. [7] The piston valves were driven by Stephenson valve gear. The class were fitted with the Standard No. 4 boiler. [2] One locomotive, No. 3805 County Kerry was fitted with a smaller Standard No. 2 boiler between November 1907 and May 1909. [4]
| Year | Quantity | Lot No. | Works Nos. | Locomotive numbers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1904 | 10 | 149 | 2056–2065 | 3473–3482 | renumbered 3800, 3831–3839 in 1912 |
| 1906 | 20 | 165 | 2209–2228 | 3801–3820 | |
| 1911–12 | 10 | 184 | 2416–2425 | 3821–3830 |
They were the last new GWR 4-4-0 design and by far the most modern, with inside frames and outside cylinders. They were designed as a part of Churchward's standardisation plan, but were found to have a front end too powerful for the wheel arrangement and all were withdrawn by the early 1930s. They were designed, in part, for the Hereford to Shrewsbury LNWR line over which the GWR had running powers, but on which they were expressly forbidden to use 4-6-0 locomotives. The 4-4-0 Counties were in effect a shortened GWR 2900 Class, providing engines powerful enough for the trains but with the requisite four-coupled wheels.
The key components were all proven but the combination was somewhat poor, and perhaps the least successful of Churchward's designs. From the outset they were found to be rough riders but were otherwise effective locos. All other GWR 4-4-0s were inside-cylindered and none had a piston stroke greater than 26 inches, whereas the 'County' had a 30-inch stroke driving a meagre 8 ft 6 ft wheelbase.
The County Class used the same cylinders and motion as Churchward's six-coupled locomotives and required the same mass to counterbalance the reciprocating parts of the motion. However the weight required had to be divided between four driving wheels rather than six. The heavier balance weights produced a high level of wheel hammer blow; at six revolutions per second the hammer blow was 8 tons, compared with the 3.6 tons of the inside-cylindered City Class and the 6.4 tons of the six-coupled Saint Class. The left hand trailing axleboxes often developed hammering, which was caused by the amount of counterbalancing used. [9]
This class were subject to the 1912 renumbering of GWR 4-4-0 locomotives, which saw the Bulldog class gathered together in the series 3300–3455, and other types renumbered out of that series. The County Class took numbers 3800–3839.
3833 County of Dorset was the first to be withdrawn, in February 1930. By the end of 1933 all had gone, the last survivor being No. 3834 County of Somerset, withdrawn in November of that year. [10]
They were also the basis for the 'County Tank' GWR 2221 Class design, a 4-4-2T using the same basic design as the County but with a smaller and lighter boiler, and the replacement of the tender by the addition of side tanks, bunker and trailing axle.
No members of the class were preserved. However, the Great Western Society took the decision to create the next locomotive in the sequence, 3840 County of Montgomery. [11] The project has been handed over to the Churchward County Trust and 3840 will be based at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway following its construction at Tyseley Locomotive Works in Birmingham. The locomotive is being built with both new parts, such as the driving wheels which have been cast using the pattern created for GWS Saint Class 2999 "Lady of Legend", and recycled standard parts recovered from former Barry scrapyard locomotives including the Standard No. 4 Boiler, the pony truck wheel set, 2 x pony truck axle boxes, 4 x horn guides and 2 x eccentric sheaves from 5205 Class 2-8-0T 5227, and 4 x driving wheel axle boxes from 2800 Class 2-8-0 2861.
Hornby Railways manufacture a model of the 38xx in OO gauge. 3mm Scale Model Railways manufacture a model kit of the 38xx in TT gauge. Hornby manufactured between 1931-1936 electric and clockwork tin-plate models of the 3821 County of Bedford in 0 gauge.
The Great Western Railway 4000 or Star were a class of 4-cylinder 4-6-0 passenger steam locomotives designed by George Jackson Churchward for the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1906 and introduced from early 1907. The prototype was built as a 4-4-2 Atlantic. They proved to be a successful design which handled the heaviest long-distance express trains, reaching top speeds of 90 mph (145 km/h), and established the design principles for GWR 4-cylinder classes over the next twenty-five years.
The Great Western Railway 3700 Class, or City Class, locomotives were a series of twenty 4-4-0 steam locomotives, designed for hauling express passenger trains.
George Jackson Churchward was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1922.
The GWR 4100 Class was a class of steam locomotives in the Great Western Railway (GWR) of the United Kingdom.
The Great Western Railway 3252 or Duke Class were 4-4-0 steam locomotives with outside frames and parallel domed boilers. They were built in five batches between 1895 and 1899 for express passenger train work in Devon and Cornwall. William Dean was their designer, possibly with the collaboration of his assistant, George Jackson Churchward. Four prototype 4-4-0s, of the Armstrong Class, had already been built in 1894.
The Bulldog and Bird classes were double-framed inside cylinder 4-4-0 steam locomotives used for passenger services on the Great Western Railway. The Bird Class were a development of the Bulldogs with strengthened outside frames, of which a total of fifteen were built. A total of 121 Bulldogs were built new, with a further twenty rebuilt from Duke Class locomotives. Thirty Bulldogs were later rebuilt as Earl Class locomotives and renumbered 3265, 3200-3228.
The Great Western Railway 3200 Class was a design of 4-4-0 steam locomotive for passenger train work. The nickname for this class, almost universally used at the time these engines were in service was Dukedog since the locomotives were composed of former Duke Class boilers on Bulldog Class frames. As such they were one of the last standard gauge steam locomotive classes to retain outside frames.
The Great Western Railway 2900 Class or Saint Class, which was built by the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works, incorporated several series of 2-cylinder passenger steam locomotives designed by George Jackson Churchward and built between 1902 and 1913 with differences in the dimensions. The majority of these were built as 4-6-0 locomotives; but thirteen examples were built as 4-4-2. They proved to be a highly successful class which established the design principles for GWR 2-cylinder classes over the next fifty years, and influenced similar classes on other British railways.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 6959 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 named after English and Welsh country houses.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 6000 Class or King Class is a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotives designed for express passenger work and introduced in 1927. They were the largest locomotives built by the GWR, apart from the unique Pacific. The class was named after kings of the United Kingdom and of England, beginning with the then reigning monarch, King George V, and going back through history. They handled the principal GWR expresses on the main line from London to the West of England and on the Chiltern line to Birmingham and Wolverhampton, until 1962 when the class was withdrawn.
The Great Western Railway 1000 Class or County Class was a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotive. Thirty examples were built between 1945 and 1947, but all were withdrawn and scrapped in the early 1960s. A replica locomotive is under construction.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 4300 Class is a class of 2-6-0 (mogul) steam locomotives, designed by G.J. Churchward for mixed traffic duties. 342 were built from 1911–1932.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 2221 Class or County Tank was a class of 4-4-2T steam locomotive, effectively a tank engine version of the 3800 "County" Class 4-4-0 tender locomotives. The two classes had different boilers, standard no 4 for the tender locomotive, and the smaller standard no 2 for the tank. 2230 was fitted with the larger boiler when new, but this was unsuccessful and was quickly altered.
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.
The Dean Single, 3031 Class, or Achilles Class was a type of steam locomotive built by the British Great Western Railway between 1891 and 1899. They were designed by William Dean for passenger work. The first 30 members of the class were built as 2-2-2s of the 3001 Class.
During the 1880s and 1890s, William Dean constructed a series of experimental locomotives to test various new ideas in locomotive construction for the Great Western Railway.
No.6880 Betton Grange is a steam locomotive which is under construction as a "new-build" project, originally based on the Llangollen Railway in Denbighshire, Wales, then subsequently at Tyseley Locomotive Works. Described as "building the 81st Grange", the project started in 1998, and the locomotive was earlier expected to be operational by 2013, but subsequently by Autumn 2021. All of the original GWR 6800 Class Grange locomotives were withdrawn for scrap by the end of 1965; this project is a creation, from an assemblage of original GWR and newly manufactured components, of a member of this class.
La France, number 102, was a locomotive of the Great Western Railway. It was bought by G.J. Churchward to evaluate French locomotive practice, and particularly the effect of compounding.
The GWR 455 Class, also called the "Metropolitan" or "Metro" Tanks, was a series of 140 2-4-0T locomotives built for the Great Western Railway, originally for their London suburban services, including running on the underground section of the Metropolitan Railway, the source of their nickname. Later on the class was seen on many other parts of the GWR system. Sixty "Metro" Tanks were built, from 1868 onwards, during the lifetime of their designer, Joseph Armstrong. His successor William Dean regarded the class so highly that he would add a further 80, the final 20 examples appearing as late as 1899. The "Metros" were all built at Swindon Works, in nine lots of ten or 20 engines each.
