The Churchward 4-4-0 Counties – The First Modern British 4-4-0 - David Bradshaw

With the 41st Churchward County 4-4-0 now under construction - 3840 County of Montgomery - it is perhaps a good time to take a closer look at this often maligned class and clear up some of the historical misapprehensions together with an outline what has been achieved so far and what is planned for the future

The first Great Western County class, the Churchward 4-4-0’s, did not have the glamour of their larger cousins, the Saint Class 4-6-0’s and, by comparison with many GW engines, had a shorter operational life. Nevertheless, as a class of 40 engines, they made a significant contribution to the efficient operation of the Great Western Railway over 30 years. Notably they were the first really modern 4-4-0’s produced in Britain. Built as part of Churchward’s grand standardisation plan, the ‘Counties’ were in stark contrast to the Dean/ Churchward double frame 4-4-0’s which were being built and developed by Churchward at the same time. O.S Nock commented that ‘history had written off the 4-4-0 Counties as one of Churchward’s failures’ but he believed that this was not accurate and there is strong evidence that they were excellent locomotives on the road, despite being on the rough side, something which was attributed to their short wheelbase and long stroke outside cylinders.

The Counties, possibly because of their relatively early demise, were always something of an enigma. It has even been suggested that they were built simply because of the availability of standard parts. Nothing could be further from the truth and they clearly filled an important niche in the general pattern of GW motive power for nearly thirty years.

The Counties were Churchward’s Edwardian engineering solution to the requirement for a passenger locomotive of medium power and provided a radically different approach to that of his predecessor William Dean, who was responsible for the classic Victorian lines (though not the boilers) of the double-framed 4-4-0’s.

The County was directly comparable to the Dean/Churchward City Class because both

carried Churchward’s excellent no 4 domeless tapered boiler along with the standard 6feet 8½” driving wheels.

The design of the Counties followed exactly the pattern of Churchward’s other standard classes, save that a prototype was not considered necessary. By the time they were built, Churchward had established his arrangement of Stephenson link motion, which gave GW locos their renowned hill climbing ability, and other standard features, so they went straight into volume production.

They were fitted with the standard No 4 boiler, which was also fitted to the 3150 2-62T’s, the Aberdare 2-6-0’s, the Cities, the 42XX 2-8-0T’s, the 72XX class 2-8-2T’s and the 4300 class moguls, all of which proved to be very successful designs. Given that the County shared its major components with these designs, it is inconceivable that their performance would have been in any way inferior.

The class was constructed in the same manner as the other standard engines, using plate frames which ended forward of the front coupled wheelset to which were attached forged extension frames. The cylinder block, formed of two back-to-back castings, was then attached to this to form a very strong front-end assembly. The driving wheels, bogie and cylinder block were identical to those of the Saint.

The first batch, Nos 3473 to 3482 subsequently renumbered 3800 and 3831 to 3839, appeared between May and October 1904 and were named after English and Welsh

3473 3800 County of Middlesex 5/1904 9/1911 3/1931 3474 3831 County of Berks 6/1904 5/1910** 11/1930 3475 3832 County of Wilts 6/1904 11/1910 5/1930 3476 3833 County of Dorset 8/1904 2/1911 2/1930 3477 3834 County of Somerset 8/1904 1/1912 11/1933 3478 3835 County of Devon 8/1904 10/1909 1/1931 3479 3836 County of Warwick 10/1904 2/1913 11/1931 3480 3837 County of Stafford 10/1904 7/1911 3/1931 3481 3838 County of Glamorgan 10/1904 2/1912 8/1930 3482 3839 County of Pembroke 10/1904 4/1910 3/1930

3801 County Carlow 10/1906** 5/1912 4/1931 3802 County Clare 10/1906** 4/1910 5/1931 3803 County Cork 10/1906** 10/1910 1/1932 3804 County Dublin 10/1906** 11/1909 3/1931 3805 County Kerry 10/1906**# 8/1912 5/1932 3806 County Kildare 11/1906 9/1913 2/1931 3807 County Kilkenny 11/1906 2/1910 12/1930 3808 County Limerick 11/1906 10/10 10/1931 3809 County Wexford 11/1906 2/1910 9/1931 3810 County Wicklow 11/1906 7/1910 3/1931 3811 County of Bucks 11/1906 4/1912 1/1931 3812 County of Cardigan 11/1906 5/1911 7/1932 3813 County of Carmarthen 11/1906 4/1911 11/1931 3814 County of Chester 11/1906## 2/1911 6/1933 3815 County of Hants 11/1906 7/1910 1/1932 3816 County of Leicester 12/1906** 10/1910 9/1931 3817 County of Monmouth 12/1906 10/1910 1/1931 3818 County of Radnor 12/1906 10/1910 8/1931 3819 County of Salop 12/1906 6/1912 5/1931 3820 County of Worcester 12/1906 10/1911 5/1931 3821 County of Bedford 12/1911 Built 9/1931 3822 County of Brecon 12/1911 Built 4/1933 3823 County of Carnarvon 12/1911 Built 4/1931 3824 County of Cornwall 12/1911 Built 3/1931 3825 County of Denbigh 12/1911 Built 3/1931 3826 County of Flint 1/1912 Built 8/1931 3827 County of Gloucester 1/1912 Built 12/1931 3828 County of Hereford 1/1912 Built 3/1933 3829 County of Merioneth 1/1912 Built 2/1932 3830 County of Oxford 2/1912 Built 2/1931

# Carried Standard No.2 Boiler 11/1907-5/1909 ** These dates are a month different in “Engine Data”: - 3801-3805 11/1906; 3816 11/1906 3831 5/1904 ## Named County of Cheshire until 5/1907

Counties, with the first, No 3473, carrying the name County of Middlesex. They were an immediate success and a further twenty locomotives Nos 3801-3820 appeared between October and December 1906, utilising further English and Welsh names plus some Irish Counties.

The Great Western had close ties with South West Ireland which was still part of the UK at this time. By the end of 1906, the thirty Counties constituted the greatest number of any of the standard classes then constructed. Following the completion of the second batch there was a pause in production while Churchward took the decision to re-boiler nine Atbaras with the standard No 4 boiler, making them virtually indistinguishable from the ten Cities, bringing the class total to 20.

The final batch of ten Counties, numbered 3821 to 3830 was delivered between December 1911 and February 1912 and they were the first to be built new with superheaters and top

feed. They carried names of a further selection of English and Welsh Counties. This batch had the previously standard 2½” offset eliminated, and the cylinder centre line became coincident with the axle centres as in the Court series of Saints. Two other more obvious changes were the introduction of the ‘Holcroft curve’ to the running plate, front and rear, which alleviated the angular look which had been much criticised and the introduction of screw reverse to replace the previously standard lever arrangement. The Churchward standard bogie was also fitted. The bogie brakes were removed in 1924 but, this apart, the class was merely updated by the fitting of superheated boilers and top feed. No other significant alterations were made during their working lives.

Differences between the batches were:

The first two batches, Lot 149 (3473 to 3482 later 3800 & 3831-3839)) and Lot 165 (3801 – 3820) had straight footplating and lever reverse, the cylinder centre line was set 2½” above the driving wheel centre line and the third batch,

Lot No 184 (3821 – 3830), were built late 1911/12. They were visually different from the earlier batches being vacuum braked and carrying the large copper-capped chimneys with their footplating curved downwards at each end in the familiar ‘Holcroft’ style. They had screw reverser and the reversing reach rod was on the R.H. side sloping forwards and down and passing behind the nameplate. Decorative brass beading was fitted to the wheel splasher edges, while the earlier batches had simple plate steel strengthening strips riveted on. The righthand nameplate was set inwards a few inches from the edge of the splasher; these engines (3821-3830) carried superheated boilers right from the start while the earlier engines were brought into line by 1912.

The Churchward 3500-gallon tender was standard for this batch and they were fitted with Court series cylinders, which had their centre lines coincident with those of the driving wheels unlike the earlier engines. This last batch was constructed with the more modern De Glenn type suspension.

The first batch of engines was re-numbered in 1912; No. 3473 changing to 3800 while Nos 3474 to 3482 became 3831 to 3839 in order. All the rest retained their original numbers. Basic dimensions were: Cylinders (O) 18” x 30”, 10” piston valves, standard No 4 boiler pressed to 200 lbs, Grate: 20.56 sq. ft. Wheels: bogie 3' 2”, driving 6’8 ½” Tractive effort: 20,500lbs. Tenders: Dean 3000 / 4000 gallon and Churchward 3500 gallon varieties were variously fitted.

As would be expected from a locomotive with a modern taper boiler, direct exhaust

passages and long travel valves, the Counties were strong and powerful engines. In their early pre-superheated days, they were the most numerous of the Churchward standard designs and were found all over the GW system.

Were they successful? All the evidence suggests that they were. The highest speed recorded was 86 mph. There were few modifications, a sure sign of the basic soundness of the design; they were used for most of their lives on express turns, quite often in their later days as substitutes for larger more powerful engines which had failed.

Their withdrawal came as a direct result of the introduction of significant numbers of Hall class engines and the unwillingness of the authorities to relegate them to secondary duties, something that was common practice on other railways. Withdrawals began in 1930 with the last of the class no 3834 County of Somerset - one of the first series - being the last to be withdrawn in November 1933. The County class was the first class of truly modern 4-4-0’s to be built in Britain and the first to be withdrawn.

No 3836 County of Warwick, from the first batch, ran up the highest mileage having covered 1,044,235 miles by withdrawal. A further three broke the one million miles barrier and twenty ran over 900,000 miles. The only significant modification,, and a short lived one at that, was the fitting of a No 2 boiler to No 3805 County Kerry between November 1907 and May 1909. This was achieved by the fitting of a distance piece on the existing saddle to accommodate the smaller diameter smokebox. It was evidently not a success. The remaining design changes concentrated on thermal efficiency and, by 1913, all 30 Counties not originally built with a superheater had received one and the same 30 received a top feed by 1913. In 1930, when the LMS was at last prepared to accept 4-6-0 engines over the Standish to Yate line, withdrawals of the Counties began. Five of the first six were from the first batch of 1904 while, in 1931 no fewer than 25 went, with four going in 1932 and the last five in 1933.

Withdrawals of all the large wheeled 4-4-0’s of both inside and outside cylinder varieties took place between 1927 and 1933 due, primarily, to redundancy and not because of any fundamental design shortcomings. The Counties, being the most modern, were the last to be withdrawn. The GW approach of constantly updating its fleet was the undoing of the Counties and the other large wheel 4-4-0’s.

The idea of building a Churchward County came as a result of negotiations with the Vale of Glamorgan Council, owners of the Barry Ten, the last survivors of over two hundred locomotives acquired by Woodhams Scrapyard in South Wales, the majority of which were not cut up. As part of the deal to acquire the parts to build a Hawksworth County 4-6-0, the Great Western Society was persuaded to build a Churchward 4-4-0 and a 4700 class 2-8-0.

With the other two projects under way and resistance from members of the GWS to starting another before the others were completed, a separate charitable trust was formed to construct No 3840 County of Montgomery. The formal launch took place in 2017.

The frame plates were manufactured soon afterwards, and the acquisition of suitable parts began immediately. Donor items for this locomotive came from several members of the Barry Ten: • the no 4 boiler and one bogie wheelset from

Churchward 2-8-0 Tank no 5227; • one bogie wheelset from Churchward 2-8-0 no 2861, which also provided the axleboxes; • The hornguides are from Collett 2-6-2 tank

No 4115 and 2861 and the spring hangers from 4115. • One crosshead originally from No 5224 has also been acquired. • Other items are being acquired as they come to light – slidebars, tie bars, tee links and driving underkeeps.

The boiler of No. 5212 was built in 1923 as stock and has been fitted to 5229 in 1924, 5230, 5360, 7314, 5310 and lastly to 5227 during 1955. A suitable 3500 gallon tender chassis has been acquired (No. 2143) which was built for stock on 1st Dec 1920 and first paired with Mogul No. 6315, later running behind Nos. 6314, 6315 (again), 2857, 2840, 5364, 6385, 6339, 6361, 2861, 2837, 2890, 5360, 6330, 6818, 6344, 6373, 6394, 6317, 6368, 5396, 2824, 2884, 3851, 3846, 3843, and 3822, which it was still behind at Barry.

New items required are the plate frames which were cut by Tata Steel in 2018, extension frames machined from solid have already been

made for 6880 Betton Grange and 3850 and the two billets for this task have been obtained, a bogie, two 6’ 8½” driving wheelsets for which the pattern used for 2999 Lady of Legend will be used, most of the motion, cylinder block and most of the smaller components. Other items are mainly standard; injectors, ejector a full range of backhead fittings, connecting rods and safety valves. The only non-standard items are the 8’ 6” coupling rods. A drawing for the Lot 184 inside steampipe cylinder block has survived and polystyrene patterns have been made by Premier Patterns of Smethwick and the castings ordered from Russell Ductile in Scunthorpe. An attractive quotation has been received which will result in the wheels being cast in 2021. The nameplates were recently completed and joined the cast brass number plates which were cast some time ago. To our knowledge no parts have survived from a Churchward County though a suitable chimney has been rescued and refurbished.

Overall excellent progress has been made although there is currently nothing to be seen to demonstrate this, something which will be changing in the new year when the plate frames will be erected. Completion – really all depends on fundraising but certainly no earlier than 2024.