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The Great Western Railway (GWR) 4500 Class or Small Prairie is a class of 2-6-2T steam locomotives.
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The Great Western Railway (GWR) 4500 Class or Small Prairie is a class of 2-6-2T steam locomotives.
They were designed as small mixed traffic locomotives, mainly used on branch lines. The design was based on the earlier 4400 Class, but with larger driving wheels and altered wheel spacing. This gave them extra speed — capable of 60 mph (97 km/h) in service. [2] A total of 75 were built; 55 were built in four batches between 1906 and 1915 and a fifth batch of 20 locos was built in 1924, during Collett's tenure at Swindon. The first two batches were originally numbered 2161–2190 but were renumbered 4500–4529 during 1912. The first batch (2161–2180) is significant in that it was the last batch of locos built at Stafford Road Works, Wolverhampton. [3] Of this batch 2168 (as 4507) was the last Wolverhampton-built loco to remain in service with BR, not being withdrawn until 1963. The final two batches built were nos. 4530–4554 in 1913-15 and nos. 4555–4574 in 1924.
| Year | Quantity | Lot No. | Works Nos. | Locomotive numbers | Notes |
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| 1906–08 | 20 | Wolverhampton N3 | Wolverhampton 775–794 | 2161–2180 | renumbered 4500–4519 in 1912 |
| 1909–10 | 10 | Swindon 174 | Swindon 2310–2319 | 2181–2190 | renumbered 4520–4529 in 1912 |
| 1913 | 10 | Swindon 193 | Swindon 2516–2525 | 4530–4539 | |
| 1914–15 | 15 | Swindon 201 | Swindon 2597–2611 | 4540–4554 | |
| 1924 | 20 | Swindon 226 | — | 4555–4574 |
The 4575 Class was a later development with larger side tanks.
The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway (R&SBR) had been worked by the GWR since 1 July 1906, although it was not absorbed until 1 January 1922. [5] [6] [7] In April 1907, the GWR sent three new locomotives of the first batch, nos. 2165–7, to the R&SBR; these were given R&SBR numbers 31–33. [8] The Port Talbot Railway (PTR) was absorbed by the GWR on 1 January 1908, but its locomotive fleet remained separate until 1 January 1922. [9] [6] [10] In March 1909, R&SBR nos. 31 and 32 were transferred to the PTR, regaining their GWR numbers 2165 and 2166. These two were returned to the GWR in 1912, being renumbered 4504 and 4505 in December that year. No. 33 was not returned until January 1914, when it was renumbered 4506. [8] [11]
Three of the class still exist, two of them survivors from Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. All of them have run in preservation.
4555 was bought in working order from British Railways by Patrick Whitehouse and fellow Talyllyn Railway member Pat Garland, so has never had to be restored. Originally working on the Dart Valley Railway, she later moved to the Dartmouth Steam Railway. She returned to steam in 2020 after having been under a major overhaul since 2014. [12] Currently on a 3-year loan to the East Somerset Railway from March 2020. Went on loan to the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway for the 2024 season. She currently carries the name: Warrior.
This locomotive left Woodham Brothers in September 1975. It is currently undergoing an extensive overhaul on the West Somerset Railway, having been out of service since 1998. [13]
Currently stored out of service on the Severn Valley Railway awaiting an overhaul, this locomotive left Woodham Brothers in August 1970. It returned to service in late 2006 following an overhaul and after several years painted in Great Western green, was repainted into BR unlined black with the early crest for the first time in preservation. It was withdrawn from service in January 2017 following the expiry of her boiler certificate. [14] It is on display inside the Engine House at Highley until its turn to overhaul comes again.
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 (GWR) 4200 Class is a class of 2-8-0T steam locomotives.
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) 7200 Class is a class of 2-8-2T steam locomotive. They were the only 2-8-2Ts built and used by a British railway, and the largest tank engines to run on the Great Western Railway.
The GWR 5600 Class is a class of 0-6-2T steam locomotive built between 1924 and 1928. They were designed by Charles Collett for the Great Western Railway (GWR), and were introduced into traffic in 1924. After the 1923 grouping, Swindon inherited a large and variable collection of locomotives from historic Welsh railway companies, which did not fit into their standardisation programme. GWR boiler inspectors arrived en masse and either condemned the original locomotives or had them rebuilt. The systematic destruction of many examples of locomotives, most still in serviceable condition, followed, but various were worked alongside 5600 Class.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 4575 Class is a class of 2-6-2T British steam locomotives.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 2301 Class or Dean Goods Class is a class of British 0-6-0 steam locomotives.
GWR 2800 Class No. 2807 is one of the surviving members of the Great Western Railway's 2800 Class of 2-8-0 steam locomotives, also known as the 28XX class.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 3000 Class was a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotive consisting of the ex-Railway Operating Division ROD 2-8-0. These were built by North British Locomotive Co. between 1917 and 1918. No examples have been preserved.
The GWR 388 class was a large class of 310 0-6-0 goods locomotives built by the Great Western Railway. They are sometimes referred to as the Armstrong Goods or Armstrong Standard Goods to differentiate from the Gooch Goods and Dean Goods classes, both of which were also large classes of standard goods locomotives.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) GWR 5100 Class was a class of 2-6-2T side tank steam locomotives. It was the first of a series of broadly similar classes used principally for suburban passenger services.
The Taff Vale Railway A class was a class of 0-6-2T steam tank locomotives designed by J. Cameron for mixed traffic work and introduced to the Taff Vale Railway (TVR) in 1914. The A class was an enlarged version of the TVR O4 class designed by Tom Hurry Riches in 1907. The A class was the last new class of locomotive to be introduced on the TVR, which had introduced its first 0-6-2Ts in 1885 ; and, with a total of 58 built, was numerically the largest class of tank locomotive on the TVR.
The GWR 2201 Class was a class of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge2-4-0 steam locomotives built at Swindon Works under the aegis of William Dean for express passenger service on the Great Western Railway. Built in 1881–82, they were numbered 2201 to 2220.
From 1920, the cab side of Great Western Railway (GWR) steam locomotives bore a letter on a coloured disc, which enabled staff to quickly assess the capabilities of locomotives without the need to check tables of data. The letter showed the power classification, and the coloured disc showed the weight restriction. This system continued after the GWR became the Western Region of British Railways.
The GWR 378 Class was a class of 30 standard-gauge 2-2-2 steam locomotives on the Great Western Railway in Britain. They were introduced in 1866, and the class remained intact until 1898. Several were altered to the 0-6-0 wheel arrangement, and the last was withdrawn from service in 1920.
The GWR 481 Class was a class of 20 2-4-0 mixed-traffic steam locomotives designed for the Great Western Railway by Joseph Armstrong and built at Swindon Works in 1869. They were similar in size to the 439 Class but differed in appearance, thanks to the flowing lines of their outside frames.
The 1661 Class was William Dean's second design of tank locomotive for England's Great Western Railway. Like the 1813 Class which preceded them, there were 40 1661s, turned out of Swindon Works in two batches.
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 Cambrian Railways Class 89s were 0-6-0 tender locomotives introduced by Jones in 1903 for general use over their system, upon grouping they became Great Western Railway class 15 and were reboilered from 1924 onwards with Swindon parts.
