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 5051 Drysllwyn Castle & 7029 Clun Castle at Plymouth in 1985 while working "The Great Western Limited" railtour. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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5051 Drysllwyn Castle is a Great Western Railway (GWR) Castle Class locomotive built at Swindon Works in May 1936 and named after Dryslwyn Castle. It is owned by the Didcot Railway Centre.
5051 was built at Swindon Works in May 1936 and was named after Drysllwyn Castle, carrying this name for the first 18 months of its working life before being renamed to Earl Bathurst in August 1937 (the name coming from a de-named Dukedog Class No. 3208/9008).[ citation needed ] It would carry this name for the rest of its Great Western and British Railways working career. Its original name would later be applied to classmate No. 7018.
It was first allocated to Landore depot in Swansea and remained there until June of 1961, when it was transferred to Neath (shed code 87A). It was transferred to Llanelly (87F) in February 1963 and remained there until withdrawal in May that same year, having run 1,300,000 miles. It was later sold to Woodham Brothers in Oct of the same year. [1]
5051 remained in the scrapyard until March 1969, when it was purchased by John Mynors and sold to the Great Western Society at Didcot Railway Centre for restoration. It was restored to steam in 1979 and was reunited with its original Drysllwyn Castle nameplates. It was regularly steamed during the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Great Western Railway in 1985.
It returned to steam in 1998 following an overhaul at Didcot and it was later returned to mainline service. On one occasion in the summer of 2003, it stood in for No. 7802 Bradley Manor working the Torbay Express, promoted by Past-Time Rail (7802 was booked to work the trains from Bristol Temple Meads to Kingswear and return, but on the first train of the season Bradley Manor developed a hot axle box and was unable to haul the next two outings, which saw 5051 take the Manor's place). Being faster than 7802 (which could only run at 60 mph, compared to 75 mph for 5051), it managed to keep to the timetable without any issues. 7802 later returned for the 31 August and 7 September trips. [2]
It ran for most of its preserved life in lined GWR green with the letters GW on its tender. Prior to withdrawal, it was painted in BR lined green with the early emblem on its tender. Its boiler ticket later expired in 2008. At present, 5051 remains a static display. [3]
In preservation, it has run with both Collett and Hawksworth tenders; it was initially paired with a Collett tender following its restoration from scrapyard condition in the 1970s, and briefly used a Churchward tender following its overhaul in 1998. It was later paired with a Hawksworth tender, which it used for its previous boiler ticket. It has now once again been paired with a Collett tender while on display in the Great Western Society's engine shed at Didcot.
The 4073 or Castle Class are 4-6-0 steam locomotives of the Great Western Railway, built between 1923 and 1950. They were designed by the railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer, Charles Collett, for working the company's express passenger trains. They could reach speeds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h).
Didcot Railway Centre is a railway museum and preservation engineering site in Didcot, Oxfordshire, England. The site was formerly a Great Western Railway engine shed and locomotive stabling point.
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 4900 Class or Hall Class is a class of 4-6-0 mixed-traffic steam locomotives designed by Charles Collett for the Great Western Railway. A total of 259 were built at Swindon Works, numbered 4900–4999, 5900–5999 and 6900–6958. The LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 and LNER Thompson Class B1 both drew heavily on design features of the Hall Class. After nationalisation in 1948, British Railways gave them the power classification 5MT.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 4200 Class is a class of 2-8-0T steam locomotives.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 7800 Class or Manor Class is a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotive. They were designed as a lighter version of the Grange Class, giving them a wider Route Availability. Like the 'Granges', the 'Manors' used parts from the GWR 4300 Class Moguls but just on the first batch of twenty. Twenty were built between 1938 and 1939, with British Railways adding a further 10 in 1950. They were named after Manors in the area covered by the Great Western Railway. Nine are preserved.
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 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.
Great Western Railway (GWR) 6000 Class King George V is a preserved British steam locomotive.
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 Great Western Railway (GWR) 4700 Class was a class of nine 2-8-0 steam locomotives, designed by George Jackson Churchward. They were introduced in 1919 for heavy mixed-traffic work. Although primarily designed for fast freight, the class also sometimes hauled passenger trains, notably heavy holiday expresses in the summer months. They were unofficially nicknamed "Night Owls" because they were primarily designed to haul goods during the night and they could be seen simmering in the daylight, awaiting their nocturnal duties.
The GWR 4073 Class 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe is a steam locomotive of the GWR 'Castle' Class, built in March 1936. It was originally named Barbury Castle, and was renamed Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in September 1937. It had a double chimney and 4 row superheater fitted in October 1958.
GWR 4073 Class 5080 Defiant is a GWR 4073 Class steam locomotive built for the Great Western Railway at Swindon Works in May 1939. It was originally named Ogmore Castle.
7812 Erlestoke Manor is a preserved GWR 7800 Class steam locomotive, operated by the Great Western Railway and later British Railways. Owned by the Erlestoke Manor Fund, as at December 2022 it was in operational condition on the Severn Valley Railway.
4930 Hagley Hall is a Great Western Railway, 4-6-0 Hall class locomotive, built in May 1929 at Swindon Works to a design by Charles Collett. It is one of eleven of this class that made it into preservation. The locomotive is named after Hagley Hall in Worcestershire.
7802 Bradley Manor is a 7800 'Manor' Class 4-6-0 steam locomotive. Built by the Great Western Railway at its Swindon Works in January 1938 it had an operating life of 27 years being withdrawn in November 1965. Designed by Charles Collett, it is one of nine of the class to be preserved and is currently based on the Severn Valley 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, which was then pushed back to 2024. It was expected to be launched under steam in a private member event in January 2024 but was postponed a week before the event. 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.
