The steam locomotives of British Railways were used by British Railways over the period 1948–1968. The vast majority of these were inherited from its four constituent companies, the "Big Four".
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. 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.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-8-2 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 4200 Class is a class of 2-8-0T steam locomotives.
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) 4500 Class or Small Prairie is a class of 2-6-2T steam locomotives.
W. G. Bagnall was a locomotive manufacturer from Stafford, England which was founded in 1875 and operated until it was taken over in 1962 by English Electric.
The Rhymney Railway M class was a class of 0-6-2T tank locomotive introduced into traffic on the Rhymney Railway in 1904. These were substantial sized tank engines, and weighed 66 long tons and were 36 feet 9 inches (11.20 m) in length.
The Rhymney R class was a class of 0-6-2T steam locomotive introduced into traffic in 1907 designed by the railway's engineer Hurry Riches. These were substantial sized tank locomotives, and weighed 67 long tons and were 37 feet (11.28 m) in length.
The Rhymney Railway A class were 0-6-2T tank locomotives introduced into traffic in 1910 and designed by the railway's engineer Hurry Riches. These were substantial sized tank engines, and weighed 64 long tons and were 35 ft 9 in (10.90 m) in length.
The Neath and Brecon Stephensons were 0-6-2T tank locomotives introduced into traffic on the Neath and Brecon Railway in 1904 from a Rhymney Railway design. There were three locos in the class. They were built by Robert Stephenson and Company and were almost identical to the successful Rhymney Railway M class.
The Port Talbot Railway Stephenson Class were eleven 0-6-2T locomotives introduced into traffic in 1898 designed and built by Robert Stephenson and Company. They predated the somewhat similar but larger Rhymney Railway M class by six years.
Welsh 0-6-2T locomotives were a standard steam locomotive of the railways of South Wales. Many of the independent railways used them and, at the grouping of 1923, the survivors passed into Great Western Railway (GWR) stock. The GWR perpetuated the type in the GWR 5600 Class. The other major railway company in Wales, the LNWR, also had the LNWR Webb Coal Tank Class, though this was grouped into the LMS not the GWR.
The Port Talbot Railway and Docks Company (PTR&D) was formed in 1894 to secure the means of bringing minerals, chiefly coal, to the harbour in South Wales. It took over the docks at Port Talbot that had been operated by the Port Talbot Company. It opened its main line in 1897 and reached a connection with the Great Western Railway Garw Valley line the following year. A branch line to collieries near Tonmawr also opened in 1898. The lines were extremely steeply graded and operation was difficult and expensive, but the company was successful. Passenger operation on the main line started in 1898, but this was never a principal part of the business. For some time most of the passenger train service was operated by a railmotor that was the largest ever to work in the United Kingdom. Also in 1898 the Ogmore Valleys Extension (OVE) line, a part of the PTR&D, was opened. It had been projected as a defensive measure against competitive incursion, and it led from Margam Junction towards Tondu.
The Cooke 0-8-2T were two 0-8-2T steam tank locomotives built in 1899 for the Port Talbot Railway (PTR), South Wales. Their PTR numbers were 20 and 21 and they became Great Western Railway (GWR) nos. 1378 and 1379 in 1922.
The Barry Railway Class H was a small class of seven 0-8-2T tank locomotives built for the Barry Railway by Sharp Stewart in 1896. When they were introduced they were the first locomotives in Britain to use the 0-8-2 wheel arrangement.
Barry Railway Class B were 0-6-2T steam tank locomotives of the Barry Railway in South Wales. They were designed and built by Sharp Stewart and were virtually identical to the Class A that preceded it, with the addition of a trailing bogie. The first three, Nos. 6, 7 and 8 were introduced in December 1888 and the remainder of the batch were delivered between January and May 1889. No. 7 was vacuum fitted and thus was able to haul passenger services as the relief engine for No. 5, a Class A.
Barry Railway Class B1 were 0-6-2T steam tank locomotives of the Barry Railway in South Wales. They were designed by J. H. Hosgood and built by Sharp Stewart, & Co., Vulcan Foundry and Société Franco-Belge. The locomotive, though similar to the B class, differed in having an increased tank capacity of 1,630 gallons compared with the 1,400 gallons of the B class. The purpose of this was to enable them to take a train of empty wagons from Cadoxton Yard to Trehafod Junction without the need to refill the tank.
Barry Railway Class D were 0-8-0 steam tender engines of the Barry Railway in South Wales. They were built to a standard Sharp, Stewart and Company design modified by John Waddington Mann, the Chief Mechanical Engineer for the Swedish & Norwegian Railway. In fact, 20 of these locomotives were ordered by this railway. However the company ran into severe financial difficulty with the result that only one and a half locomotives were paid for by the S&N.
Barry Railway Class K were 0-6-2T steam tank engines of the Barry Railway in South Wales. They were designed by J. H. Hosgood and built by an American company, Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works of Paterson, New Jersey. At the time the Barry wanted to order these locomotives, British manufacturers already had a full order book. In order not to face an indefinite wait, invitations to tender were advertised in the United States. Hosgood's aim was to have a tank engine equivalent to the “Class B1”. However, because of his desire for a speedy delivery, he agreed to certain compromises in the design. The order was placed in April 1899 and was delivered later that year. Like the 0-8-2 tank locomotives Cooke built for the Port Talbot Railway and Docks Company around the same time, the engines had the clean lines and uncluttered appearance of British practice, but had bar frames, the front buffer beam separate from the footplate, as well as cylinder and saddle designs typical of American practice.
