Western Times Special - Castle Class Centenary

WE S T E RN T IME S S PE C IA L CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

£14.95

WESTERN TIMES B R SPECIAL

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY AUTUMN 2023

(W)

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY SPECIAL AUTUMN 2023

Contents Introduction

3

Before the Castles

5

The Birth of a Legend

8

A Great Western Thoroughbred

15

Design Development and Improvement

22

The Non-Castles

41

Castles on Shed

62

Operating in Cornwall

68

Double-Heading in Devon

74

In the Works

77

The ‘Super Castles’

80

Lengthening Shadows: The Twilight of Regular Service

85

Life After Death

90

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: When viewing Great Western Railway express motive power, is there a more aesthetically perfect sight than a resplendent ex-works single chimney Castle? One could argue that this view of No. 7017 G. J. Churchward about to work a running in turn westwards from Swindon on 5 June 1959, is only spoilt by its attachment to a flat-sided Hawksworth 4000g tender and not a product from the pen of its designer C.B. Collett.

Norman Simmonds.

Front Cover: No. 5048 Earl of Devon stands awaiting departure from Swansea with the 10.15am express to Paddington on 1 July 1961. Built in April 1936 as Cranbrook Castle before renaming on 24 August 1937, the locomotive was a Cardiff Canton resident at this time, although the records show it was reallocated to Neath four days after this photograph was captured.

Douglas Twibell.

Rear Cover: No. 5010 Restormel Castle is seen departing Paddington with exactly the type of express duty they were designed for, in a view thought to date from the early-1930s. The July 1927 constructed locomotive is still in comparatively as-built condition, apart from the relocation of the top lamp bracket onto the smokebox door and the addition of sanding gear to the rear driving wheels from under the cab floor.

GWR Official.

© The Transport Treasury 2023.

ISBN 978-1-913251-55-0 First Published in 2023 by Transport Treasury Publishing Ltd. 16 Highworth Close, High Wycombe, HP13 7PJ. Compiled and designed in the UK. Printed in Tarxien, Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd. The copyright holders hereby give notice that all rights to this work are reserved.

Aside from brief passages for the purpose of review, no part of this work may be reproduced, copied by electronic or other means, or otherwise stored in any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the Publisher.

This includes the illustrations herein which shall remain the copyright of the respective copyright holder.

Every effort has been made to identify and credit photographers where known.

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

INTRODUCTION hat greater justification and motivation could there at remarkably low capital expense. The contingent still in W be for the publication of this, the first of what is existence thankfully charts much of this evolutionary story. hoped to be the regular release of a Western Times Special, than the centenary since the introduction of the fabled ‘Castle Class’? A locomotive design that surely must lay claim to being the most successful of all the distinguished line of express passenger types to have graced the rails of the Great Western Railway. It is also intended to help address the disproportionate attention bestowed upon the identical anniversary being celebrated by our esteemed colleagues of an eastern persuasion during the same calendar year!

A work of this type would be impossible without the skill, generosity and diligence of many past and present Great Western adherents. The editorial team gratefully acknowledges those contributions. Firstly, there are the railway photographers who at considerable financial cost deployed their talents and patience, in traversing the GWR network. Braving all weather conditions and often burdened with cumbersome equipment, their resilience and determination generated a harvest of photographic images of Castles in their heyday, at work on a diverse range of services. The collegiate of historians and archivists also deserve grateful recognition in their painstaking accumulation of primary source material that might have otherwise made a final journey to the waste bin. The information thus saved is invaluable in enabling the addition of supporting authoritative information to enhance the photographic records.

The challenge though, is how to go about presenting material on a subject that has been explored and analysed from every conceivable angle over the years by some of the most respected authors in the genre in an engaging and different way. What the editorial team has sought to do in this enlarged ‘Castle Class Centenary’ special, is to bring to the fore many previously unpublished photographs, chaptered in such a way as to portray the many facets of these remarkable engineering masterpieces over their 100 years of service. It is virtually impossible however, to avoid replicating some images that show rare events and locomotives in a condition where no alternative views are known to exist.

The Castle experience is made immeasurably more enjoyable through the ability to reach beyond the books, magazines and albums to savour the sight, sound and smell of the real thing. Few among those hardy souls of the 1960s who strove under primitive conditions and with minimal technical support could have dared dream that their efforts would mature into the preservation movement of today. Current levels of technical sophistication and support facilities should ensure continuation of these Great Western icons for many years to come.

A feature of the class was the range of detail changes effected over the years for which in some cases photographic evidence is scarce. Setting aside the essay into partial streamlining, the Castles are instantly recognisable and that familiarity might deflect from recognition of the less prominent changes which add to the type’s intriguing diversity. Such variations were inevitable with a family of 171 locomotives that entered service over a 28-year period. Many modifications, especially those introduced in the 1920s and 1930s, were comparatively modest which underlined the efficacy of the original design concept. This was endorsed by the class’s mastery of all but the most demanding express passenger services post-1927, and by their high-speed romps with the ‘Cheltenham Flyer’.

Finally, it is important to recognise custodians of records that enshrine so many features of the Great Western story. Compilation of this Western Times Special would have been impossible without the generous help and guidance of some of these organisations and their officers. In particular, invaluable assistance has been provided by Elaine Arthurs of STEAM at Swindon and

by Peter Rance of the Great Western Trust, Didcot.

Reaching a Centenary by any institution or creation is a milestone worthy of celebration. It is hoped that this publication evokes cherished memories of a remarkable design whose introduction was unquestionably the most important railway event in the year 1923.

The most profound changes were forced upon the Company (and its successor) by factors outside its control. World War 2 and the aftermath altered for the worse the fuel situation but corrective measures had spectacular impact upon the performance of an already excellent design. The short-lived experiment with oil fuel showed what might have been possible longer term, while introduction of higher degrees of superheat and then double chimneys demonstrated what could be achieved

--- o O o --Editor: Andrew Malthouse Editorial Assistant: Jeremy Clements

To contact the editorial team please email: WesternTimes@mail.com For sales and back issues of Western Times please go to: www.ttpublishing.co.uk 3

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: Badminton Class 4-4-0 No. 3295 Bessborough (built May 1898) and crew pose for the camera at Westbourne Park shed.

The diversity of boiler experiments in pursuit of design optimisation around the turn of the century was remarkable and this was a typical example. Recognising that the single driver concept had limited career expectancy, this 20-strong class comprised the first large-wheeled 4-4-0s and a last minute decision, attributed to Churchward, saw initial adoption of the Belpaire firebox. The parallel, domed type BR4 boiler shown here was in place only until October 1906; it was one of ten fitted with Serve tubes (rifled bore to increase the heating surface). The traditional boiler-side clack boxes were replaced by internal feed pipes and there were other detail differences among other class members. An early sign of changes to come was that No. 3292 Badminton carried a cab with side windows for about four months.

Below: The first member of the ‘Kruger’ Class 4-6-0 No. 2601, was a test bed for fresh ideas considered necessary for a new viable fleet of larger locomotives. Introduced in 1899 in the closing phase of Dean’s regime, this engine reflected Churchward’s early design ideas with leading dimensions that were unprecedented by the conventional standards of the time. Intended for freight duties, the locomotive weight at 60.4 tons and tractive effort of 30,960 lb reflected considerable increase over the 0-6-0 ‘Dean Goods’ as introduced (33 tons/ 13,313 lb). No. 2601 proved unsuccessful with boiler and valve problems and so was withdrawn after 5 years’ service having run only 67,000 miles. These experiences would have provided a salutary warning about the challenges embedded in the process of design enlargement. The awkward, even ugly external appearance was exacerbated by the large saddle sand box, and the source of its ‘Kruger’ nickname which recognised the contemporary Public Enemy Number One, the leader of the Boers in the South African conflict.

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

BEFORE THE CASTLES n the final quarter of the 19th Century, Britain’s railways of the Superintendent of the Line in administration of Iexpress witnessed widescale emergence of eight-wheeled services, and in the immediate legacy of the Broad Gauge. passenger locomotives to cope with the Management of effectively three motive power fleets in one demands of heavier and faster loadings. The trend had actually commenced with a pair of 4-4-0s for the North British Railway as early as 1871. Over the next 22 years the Caledonian, Glasgow & Southern Western, Highland, Lancashire & Yorkshire, London & North Western, London & South Western, Midland, North Eastern, and South Eastern railways all took up the challenge. A memorable group of machines resulted, colourful in their various liveries, exotic in their glistening adornment, and enhanced by the variety of their wheel arrangements: 2-2-2-2; 4-2-2-0; 4-2-2; 4-4-0. Their mixed fortunes underlined the complexity endemic in finding the right formula to cope with greater operational demands. Mere enlargement was insufficient in optimising the solution to a range of design problems that needed a combination of imagination, care and creativity.

(the residue of the pure 7’ ¼” gauge stock, the burgeoning narrow gauge contingent, and the unique short-term situation of the convertible fleet) had discouraged expansionist motive power policies. Nevertheless these factors had failed to deter William Dean from engaging in courageous experiments that would yield empirical evidence of considerable value in later years.

Dean initiated the search in conventional mode for larger narrow gauge machines through 2-2-2s built at Swindon in 1891 under Lot No. 86. At 44.2 tons, they were the company’s largest of that wheel arrangement and the derailment of No. 3021 (appropriately named Wigmore Castle in the context of this volume) served notice that this development course had limited, if any, potential. An immediate solution was introduction of a leading bogie but numerous other innovations followed to improve adhesive qualities, steaming capacity, valve efficiency etc. The diversity of measures introduced, trialled and proven effective, and the speed of their introduction was breathtaking. The significance of Swindon’s progress often passed unnoticed among other operators and sometimes it was only by dint of practical comparison that the message spread beyond the GWR’s boundaries.

Paradoxically, the passenger services of the country’s largest (by route mileage) railway company remained entrusted to attractive but modestly-sized six-wheelers which as at 31 December 1893 comprised just 2-2-2s [101 examples] and 2-4-0s [197]. Reasons for the Great Western as laggard on the threshold of major advances in locomotive design included the persistent conservatism

Above: Shock of the new. The radical nature of ‘Kruger’ was confined to the boiler structure while tradition was respected below the running plate. As built in February 1902, two-cylinder 4-6-0 No. 100 affronted Victorian-era tastes in its austere angularity, outside cylinders, exposed driving wheels, and height disparity between locomotive running plate and that of the tender. Styling was improved with later 4-6-0s but No. 100 remained largely unchanged, and distinctive in its unique cylinder design, until withdrawal in June 1932. However the name Dean was applied in June 1902, expanded to William Dean the following November – Churchward’s fitting tribute to his old chief. The location is again Westbourne Park, which opened as a Broad Gauge shed in 1852 and closed in March 1906 with the opening of the nearby Old Oak Common.

5

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL In general terms the industry’s movement towards larger and more powerful engines was an all-absorbing quest conducted on a parochial plane. From the outset, one of George Jackson Churchward’s key objectives was striking and probably unique in its vision and ambition. He had determined that the core objective for his largest passenger locomotives was the capacity to sustain a drawbar pull of two tons at 70 mph, a performance standard that became a guiding design principle at Swindon. Some treated this stated intention with disbelief, even derision that perhaps derived from the archaic profile of the company’s top flight express passenger motive power in the early 1890s. However, Churchward had determined this target while 2-cylinder 4-6-0s were still at the experimental stage and he proved as good as his word. He delivered a suite of designs that competently covered the company’s motive power spectrum. The only exception was six-wheeled tank locomotives with which the GWR was adequately served through a comprehensive build programme that was concluded in 1905.

all equipped with the famous Swindon No. 1 Standard boiler emerged as flagships of the new era. Led by the 2-cylinder 4-6-0s that came to be known as the ‘Saint’ Class, they were complemented by the ‘28xx’ Class 2-8-0, for long regarded as Britain’s finest heavy freight design. The third member of the triumvirate followed a little later in the 4-cylinder 4-6-0 design universally known as the ‘Star’ Class. In terms of looks and performance it has been stated that no locomotive type has ever been more appropriately named.

Through careful experimentation and analysis, this boiler posted new standards in steaming capacity and fuel economy. The other feature that set this select locomotive family so far in advance of the products of any other British railway was valve design which ensured that the energy generated by a free steaming boiler was put to the very best effect. Churchward sponsored extensive study of valves to optimise performance which led to other important trademarks of Swindon practice.

Large piston valves enhanced steam admission to the cylinder with minimal pressure loss and reduced back pressure at the exhaust end of the cycle. Valve lap and travel was employed that was about 50% greater than what was then customary in Britain. Further, to provide a high expansion ratio, the clearance volume at the end of the piston stroke was as small as possible to minimise condensation as steam came into contact with cooler surfaces at the cylinder end and this efficiency was enhanced by short, straight steam ports.

While elsewhere the performance standard might have appeared impracticable, among Churchward’s many talents was his ability to look beyond his own company’s boundaries, and indeed his country’s which was an unusual attribute in the mechanical engineering fraternity.

American and French practice was taken to account as was what he had learned from his predecessor. Through this imaginative fusion of ideas three of his largest designs,

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

The GWR was famed for doing things its own way and these developments made virtually no impact in the pre-Grouping mechanical engineering world.

This was strange given that the performances of other companies’ 4-cylinder 4-6-0s were lacklustre compared with what the Stars were achieving in every day service. However, this superiority came at a cost in capital and maintenance terms, and led to adverse comment in the technical press. This provided fuel for a GWR director to summon up the temerity to question Churchward on the matter. He asked how the London & North Western Railway could build three 4-6-0s at a price equivalent to two GWR engines of the same wheel arrangement. Churchward’s curt response to the Board was ‘Because one of mine could pull two of their bloody things backwards’.

some factors mitigated against its competitor which indicated that the testing methods adopted were less than fair.

The Star design formed the basis for locomotive development in the glorious renaissance after the Great War. The quality of the chassis design and construction was more than adequate to accommodate the larger boiler that would be needed to cope with the greater performance demands expected in the 1920s and beyond. However, the Star’s successor copied the valve design and other features that had been fully proven. On public display beside the visibly larger 4-6-2 of another company, the GWR’s claim that its latest creation was the most powerful express locomotive in the country was clearly risible.

The scene was set for two more rounds of locomotive exchanges in 1924 with the London & North Eastern and in 1926 with the London Midland & Scottish. As the saying goes, the penny then finally dropped.

Churchward’s point was valid and borne out by practical experience in the only manner then possible – comparative trials. In 1905, No. 4005 Polar Star was tested against LNWR ‘Experiment’ 4-6-0 Class No. 1471 Worcestershire and while the conclusions were convincingly in favour of the Swindon product,

The age of the Castles had arrived.

Top: Churchward ‘Star’ class 4-6-0 No. 4040 Queen Boadicea is seen light engine on the down through road at Leamington Spa circa 1932. No. 4040 was built at Swindon Works to Lot 180 in March 1911 and was one of the longest serving ‘Stars’ lasting until June 1951 when it was withdrawn from Shrewsbury shed. Several features shared with the Castles are clearly evident, such as the outside steam pipes, inside cylinder valve casing with protruding spindle covers and large flat sided outside cylinder casings.

Left: Collett ‘2884’ Class 2-8-0 No. 2890 photographed on 6 April 1938, on the approach road to the Weigh House at Swindon Works.

These later builds of the Churchward designed 28xx Class personified the superb qualities and longevity of the Standard No. 1 boiler, which was to provide direct lineage to the exclusive Standard No. 8 design fitted to the Castles.

R C Riley (RCR 235).

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND hurchward’s production batches of his ‘Star’ Class provided an environment of tradition and stability for C of 4-6-0s excelled as the mainstay of Great Western Collett to operate. So it was that No. 4073 Caerphilly express passenger power from their introduction in early Castle emerged from its birthplace within ‘A’ Shop at 1907, up to the delivery of the final example No. 4072 Tresco Abbey in February 1923. The succession of Charles Benjamin Collett to the role of Chief Mechanical Engineer of the GWR in January 1922 unsurprisingly heralded development of a ‘Super Star’, with increased power constrained within the weight limits demanded by the railway’s civil engineer. The Swindon Drawing Office were to produce a design that incorporated extended frames to accommodate a new Standard No. 8 boiler, slightly enlarged cylinders with external steam pipes feeding the outside pair and a larger side-window cab.

Swindon Works in the first weeks of August 1923 to an expectant board of company directors and officials, as well as a general population hungry for technical innovation following the constraints of the Great War. The Railway Gazette published an account of the locomotive on 24 August, and never one to miss an opportunity, the GWR Publicity Department vaunted it as a ‘super-locomotive’ and ‘the most powerful passenger train engine in the Kingdom’. This was a thinly veiled challenge to the tractive effort figures attributed to the much larger Gresley 4-6-2s (which had previously usurped the title from the Stars) and sowed the seeds of competition with the LNER over the next few years.

The other great event of 1923 was the Grouping of the railways and in this regard, Swindon was at an advantage over the other major workshops of the Big Four. The companies absorbed into the GWR were all significantly smaller in route mileage as reflected in their lower locomotive fleet numbers. In general terms the machines acquired through absorption were smaller, and older in design philosophy. There was thus no basis for costly rivalry and conflicting policies of the order that, for example, so constrained firm progress in the early years of the LMS. Churchward’s standardisation programme was well established and

The average construction cost per locomotive for the initial batch of 10, came in at £6,841 including the 3500g Churchward designed tender. Aesthetically, this ‘small’ tender looked rather out of place against the deeper cab and the visibly larger boiler, as indicated by the photographs on this page and opposite. The Star was neatly complemented by its companion, whereas when paired with No. 4073, seemed to lack this sense of ‘balance’. Perhaps this feature contributed to the

Above: The immediate predecessor to the Castles were the outstanding Churchward ‘Star’ Class 4-6-0s, the final development of the great man’s express locomotive legacy. A typically well presented No. 4005 Polar Star is seen in the late-1920s at Old Oak Common.

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: One of the official works portraits taken to record the recently completed No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle in late July 1923, in the traditional ‘photographic grey’ livery to aid the capture process. Of note are the short-lived bogie brakes and cab roof rainstrip.

Comparison with the image opposite, clearly demonstrates the increased size of the No. 8 boiler and the more spacious cab design.

public’s perception of the Castle being under-sized and thus under-powered when compared with its eastern ‘rival’. Looks aside, it was performance on the road that counted and resolution of that point was not far off.

It appears that the authorities were keen to keep a close eye on the new flagship machines at the start of their careers. All ten of the first batch (Lot No. 224) went first to Old Oak Common and in some cases their tenure at the company’s prime depot was quite long. Old Oak Common-allocated passenger engines worked premier services between the capital and the principal network hubs. This deployment would have heightened awareness among the company workforce and clientele of a new powerful presence in the motive power fleet.

It would have been noticed that the first six examples bore Welsh names and some might have perceived a personal reason for this selection. Collett’s beloved wife Ethelwyn May was a native of the Caerphilly area and it was tragically ironic that she should have passed away in 1923, just at the time that he should have been relishing the emerging success of his creation.

For a social ‘loner’ deeply devoted to a spouse who formed the epicentre of his world outside the works, the impact then and for the rest of his life was profound.

Right: A superb photograph showing Old Oak Common shed staff dressed in their finery posing in front of No. 4073 on Sunday 19 August 1923. The locomotive had just arrived from Swindon Works and was about to be presented to the Directors of the Great Western Railway in a ceremony at Paddington.

Great Western Trust.

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

This page: These rare photographs taken during March 1924, record No. 4074 Caldicot Castle working with Dynamometer Car No. 790 on a series of test runs between Swindon and Plymouth. The pairing is seen (above) at Chipping Sodbury on Saturday 15th, posed with members of the evaluation team within the wooden wind shelter. The intriguing image (right) shows the confined space inside the shelter on the front running plate, with the myriad of pipes and valves forward of the outside steam pipe. The scene (below) was taken at Millbay Sidings in Plymouth, and highlights the data recording wires running along the locomotive and tender into the test coach.

The performance results from these road tests were impressive, particularly in regards to coal consumption, which some rival company engineers claimed could not be true. Not a man renowned for his public speaking, Collett did however take great pride in delivering the results to his peers in July 1924, via a paper entitled Testing of Locomotives on the Great Western Railway at the inaugural World Power Conference in London.

10

A nearly new No. 4074 Caldicot Castle stands in the shed yard at Old Oak Common in the Spring of 1924. This second member of the class was completed at Swindon by December 1923 and was officially allocated to OOC in April 1924 following the completion of the running trials depicted opposite. All ten of the first batch of locomotives built to Lot. 224, were initially sent to the London shed before returning to Swindon Works for initial overhauls around a year after delivery.

The Transport Treasury.

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION 1924/1925: It was with great excitement that the Directors of the Great Western Railway despatched No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle to the vast display halls at Wembley between April and October 1924.

Here it was placed alongside the far more imposing No.4472 Flying Scotsman in the Palace of Engineering, further fuelling the rivalry with the LNER. It is speculated that it was this direct physical comparison that led to the suggestion of locomotive exchange trials

by GWR General Manager Sir Felix Pole to his opposite number. The second year of the exhibition saw No. 4079 Pendennis Castle replace Caerphilly Castle, and in the photograph above No.4079 is seen ‘bulled’ to the maximum on 10 October 1925, including a whitewashed smokebox! It is estimated that over the two years that the exhibition was staged, an attendance of over 50 million visitors were able to marvel at Collett’s new masterpieces displayed in all their finery.

Great Western Trust.

THE LOCOMOTIVE EXCHANGES 1925: Posed at King’s Cross shed is No. 4079 Pendennis Castle and rival LNER ‘A1’ Class 4-6-2 No. 4475 Flying Fox. This leg of the trials over Great Northern metals, took place during the week of 27 April - 2 May between King’s Cross and Grantham/Doncaster. On the GWR the ‘Cornish Riviera Express’ was utilised to pit No. 4074 Caldicot Castle against Gresley Pacific No. 4474. The results over both routes were generally in favour of the Castles, with the LNER blaming inferior ‘roads beds’ and unfamiliar coal. The fuel economy and acceleration under load were particularly noteworthy from the Swindon locomotives.

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY THE 1925 LOCOMOTIVE EXCHANGES

heavier express locomotives of the home team were hard pressed to cover the same distance in under seven. There were other important messages learned during that momentous event, but the first impression was the most powerful. This was backed up over the following four days, where the visitor’s timings with the same load varied between 5 minutes 42 seconds and 5 minutes 57 seconds. Thus these performances only varied by a mere 15 seconds.

The supremacy of the canal system in inland transport was short-lived but nonetheless had lasting influence upon the engineering and route alignment of the succeeding railway network, sometimes with totally unexpected effects. In London, the Regent’s Canal presented a barrier to the extension of two important routes that had their termini in close proximity. The Midland Railway started from an edifice that was more cathedral than station and strode across the canal in a style that complemented the lasting grandeur of St. Pancras. Slightly to the east, the Great Northern lurked in a rather dingy building that has always struck this observer as resembling a cavern, an impression exacerbated by the maw of Gasworks Tunnel at the station throat and the difficult climb through that and Copenhagen Tunnel. Departure was thus quite different from that terminus to the west where the engineer of ‘the finest work in England’ had shown foresight in ensuring a gentle downward gradient to help heavy departing trains on their way.

The challenge to a visiting locomotive on exchange trials in 1925 was obvious and immediate, and in truth the visitor during five days of tests did let its side down by slipping, albeit once only and for a few seconds before regaining its feet. Supporters of the host company were dubious of the its ability to cope with the challenges and some partisan arch-sceptics voiced doubts on the first day whether the puny contestant would be able to clear the two notorious tunnels at all with 475 tons of teak passenger vehicles behind the tender.

These doubts were quickly dispelled when with shot gun blasts from its chimney, Pendennis Castle stamped its way through Finsbury Park, 2.6 miles from King’s Cross, in under six minutes. The larger,

Above: The explosive departure from London King’s Cross that became synonymous with the performance of No. 4079 Pendennis Castle during its trial on the LNER in April/May 1925.

This sepia toned image is reproduced from a postcard titled ‘Today’s Great Locomotive Test’ and has had certain detail picked out in silver to give relief.

Note also the missing last two digits of the number, possibly as a result of the GWR’s preference to send No. 4082 Windsor Castle to the exchange trials, denied due to it being under repair in Swindon Works at the time.

Left: No. 4079 Pendennis Castle heads north through Harringay on the Down through line. The train is thought to be the 10.10am King’s Cross - Grantham on 1 May 1925.

In spite of the LNER playing down the results of the Exchange Trials, Nigel Gresley was to take note of some of the findings, such as adoption of the GWR-style long travel valve gear in modifications to his fleet of Pacifics.

Great Western Trust Collection.

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: A resplendent No. 4079 Pendennis Castle passes Wood Green with a 16-coach load on the drawbar, during the 1925 Locomotive Exchanges on the Great Northern main line.

Great Western Trust Collection.

Motive power exchange trials were rare events and in retrospect, perhaps less emphasis on the ‘gladiatorial’ element and more on objective, scientific evaluation and comparison would have been useful. For all the fanfare, Driver Young knew exactly what he was doing as he gently backed on to the train that first morning at King’s Cross. As a Top Link OOC driver who had shepherded Stars over the South Devon banks many times, he would have been undaunted by the climb he confronted – although he did take the precaution of applying sand as No. 4079 backed down the last few yards.

More scrutiny could have yielded further useful information, perhaps. On the other hand, a wider range of comparative data might have been unwelcome to godlike Chief Mechanical Engineers who exercised largely untrammelled power over their respective empires.

Analyses aside, the best place to be that first morning was surely the down platform at Finsbury Park. Cecil J. Allen, then an LNER employee, in gentlemanly fashion set aside partisan sentiment by later noting that No. 4079 was confronting the home team’s ‘Goliath’ and that among observers there was widescale scepticism whether the train could be lifted at all. Less than 6 minutes later, ‘David’ stormed past that platform and UK locomotive design philosophy was never quite the same again.

Beyond the starting phase, the undemanding schedule was nonetheless instructive concerning rates of fuel consumption which confirmed, if any confirmation was still needed, the superiority of the Churchward philosophy on valve design. A related issue was that the Castle did well while consuming Yorkshire coal which allayed the contention that the Swindon boiler needed friendly good Welsh coal.

The GWR Publicity Department maximised all positive messaging from the introduction of the Castles and the Empire Exhibition and Locomotive Exchanges certainly provided the platform. The summer of 1925 also saw attendance at the Stockton & Darlington Centenary celebrations and the word was now well and truly out.

Right: No. 4082 Windsor Castle was one of the locomotives chosen to represent the Great Western Railway at the celebrations and cavalcade to mark the centenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on Thursday 2 July 1925.

The locomotive is seen in the company of LNER Raven and Gresley Pacifics at the Faverdale Works Exhibition in Darlington.

The disc attached to the top lamp bracket, shows the Castle was exhibit Number 50 in the procession which ran between Stockton and just short of Darlington North Road along the original S&DR route.

The Transport Treasury.

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

A GREAT WESTERN THOROUGHBRED hroughout the later half of the 1920s and up until Manufacture of an express locomotive type over such T the outbreak of WW2, the ever increasing numbers an extended period was unique in the UK. The hiatus of Castles continued to establish themselves as the during the years 1930/1 was probably the result of the mainstay of the GWR express passenger locomotive fleet. Even the introduction of the larger, more powerful Kings in 1927 did not completely usurp their mantle and widespread operational flexibility.

adverse economic conditions and resultant downturn in traffic levels plus the number of Stars in service.

The first of that class to be withdrawn for scrapping as opposed to rebuilding were Nos. 4006 Red Star and 4011 Knight of the Garter in November 1932. The longer pause in new manufacture between 1940 and 1945 was attributable to the war. Demands on the 4-6-0 fleet were intense but conditions enforced a significant relaxation in schedules so the need for high speed machines was greatly reduced. Ease of construction was paramount in face of shortages of materials and manpower. To satisfy a range of essentially mixed traffic duties, construction of three batches of the Hall Class plus the first of the Modified Halls filled the gap.

The chronological batch construction and delivery period of the class can be summarised thus: Series

Loco Nos.

Lot Nos.

Build Dates

First

4073-82 4083-92

224 232

1923-25

Second

4093-99 5000-12

234 “

1926-27

111, 4000, 4009, 4016, 4032, 4037

-

1924-29

5013-22 5023-32 5033-42 5043-67 5068-82 5093-97

280 295 296 303 310 324

1932-39

Star Rebuilds

5083-92

317

1937-40

Fourth (‘5098’ Post War)

5098-99 7000-07 7008-27 7028-37

357 “ 367 375

1946-50

Initial Rebuilds

Third (‘5013’)

Construction recommenced with Lot. 357 and No. 5098 Clifford Castle in May 1946. Impending Nationalisation would ensure that the final locomotive from that order, No. 7007 Ogmore Castle in July 1946, was to have the distinction of being the last express passenger locomotive built by the GWR. To mark this historical benchmark, No. 7007 was retrospectively renamed Great Western in January 1948. Two further batches (Lot. 367 and 375) were delivered under the auspices of British Railways, affirming the success and longevity of the original design. The last four locomotives emerged from ‘A’ Shop during August 1950 and the final example, No.7037, was placed into storage until named Swindon

by HRH Princess Elizabeth on 15 November.

Left: Great Western ‘Super Power’ in the form of Castle and King Class 4-6-0s stand adjacent to the ‘stops’ at Brunel’s iconic Paddington station circa 1931.

In Platform 9, an express from South Wales has arrived behind No. 4092 Dunraven Castle. Built in August 1925, it was the last locomotive delivered in the first series (Lot. 232) at a cost of £6,498. It accrued over 1.7 million miles during a service life of 36 years 4 months, before withdrawal on 19 December 1961.

Alongside is No. 6026 King John. The Kings were initially employed on the heaviest trains such as the Cornish Riviera Express, where their superior 40,300lb tractive effort was utilised. Delivered in July 1930, at a cost of £7,175 including the 4000g tender, it was withdrawn 12 September 1962.

H N Shepherd.

15

No. 4093 Dunster Castle stands adjacent to the huge Coaling Stage at Old Oak Common, its home shed from delivery in May 1926 until a transfer to Cardiff Canton at the end of 1933.

It remains in as-built condition as the first dish framed class member of the second-series to Lot. 234, except for the addition of sanding gear under the cab floor to the rear driving wheels. The two-row superheated HA type boiler retains the original tall pattern chimney and top lamp bracket situated above the smokebox. This locomotive was to accrue in excess of 1,850,000 miles over a service life of 38 years and 3 months and was to receive a double chimney in December 1957. Withdrawal came from Bristol St Philips Marsh shed in September 1964 and it was scrapped at Cashmore’s Newport yard during January 1965. The real Dunster Castle is an 11th Century motte and bailey fortress, situated above the village of the same name near Minehead in Somerset, now in the ownership of The National Trust.

J J Cunningham.

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: No. 5015 Kingswear Castle is found over the inspection pits at Old Oak Common on 2 June 1935. The June 1932 built locomotive was allocated to Exeter shed at this time and is still in ostensibly original condition, with the exception of the top lamp bracket having been relocated onto the smokebox door. Note also small footstep attached to the bogie.

J A Whaley.

Below: No. 5005 Manorbier Castle stands at Swindon Works on 24 July 1935, embellished in the notoriously derided streamlining experiment. The modifications were undertaken during a ‘General’ overhaul in January 1935 (see page 32), and the locomotive is back in works here for ‘Light’ attention, before returning to Old Oak Common to resume duties three days later.

GWR Official.

17

No. 5043 Barbury Castle adorned with the famous (original version) ‘Cheltenham Flyer’ headboard. The Cheltenham Flyer (officially timetabled as ‘The Cheltenham Spa Express’) was routinely limited to six or seven coaches and as such achieved fast speeds. On Monday 6 June 1932, the train broke railway speed records with a time of 56 minutes 47 seconds at an average speed of 81.6 miles per hour between Swindon and Paddington. This legendary run was hauled by No. 5006 Tregenna Castle at speeds that had never been previously recorded, thus prompting the GWR Publicity Department to proclaim it as the ‘fastest train in the world’. The image date is between March 1936 and September 1937, when No. 5043 was renamed.

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: No. 5092 Tresco Abbey is in ex-works condition at Bristol Bath Road on 6 April 1938, en route to its first shed at Gloucester.

This was the last of the batch of ten later Churchward Stars to be converted to Castles between 1937-40.

R C Riley (RCR 1200).

Below: Another Star rebuild was No. 4037 The South Wales Borderers, captured here during the final year of the Great Western Railway on 15 April 1947. The former Queen Philippa was converted in June 1926 and remained in service until September 1962. Alan Downes.

19

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: No. 5028 Llantilio Castle is recorded just a week into the new nationalised ownership of British Railways on 8 January 1948.

Standing in front of the Castle is LMS 2-6-4T Class 4P No. 2345 built at Derby in 1929. This class’s antecedents were quite complex with part of its lineage stretching back to SE&CR 2-6-0 Class N which had embraced GWR-derived features. Unusually for a Derby product of that era, axle box bearing surfaces were generous resulting in one of the LMS’s most successful designs dating from the 1920s. Alan Downes.

Below: Shortly after Nationalisation on 24 April 1948, No. 5097 Sarum Castle has been paired with BRITISH RAILWAYS branded Collett 4000g tender No. 2443. It does however retain the GWR buffer beam number in lieu of a cast smokebox door plate.

Alan Downes.

20

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: No. 5073 Blenheim is sandwiched between a WD 2-8-0 and an ‘8750’ Class 0-6-0PT at Tyseley shed in August 1948. The former Cranbrook Castle was renamed in January 1941 along with eleven classmates to recognise the Battle of Britain. R C Riley (RCR 1198).

Below: Still wearing full GWR regalia, Landore’s No. 7003 Elmley Castle heads an Up express through Goring Gap in the summer of 1949. GWR-designed stock completes the pre-nationalisation illusion, with the introduction of BR Mk.1 stock still some two years away.

21

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT t was inevitable that with a class of locomotive that some of the services it had worked including the 11.45 Inumerous ultimately totalled 171 examples built over 27 years, pm Parcels, Swindon-Carmarthen and the 12.30 pm modifications and detail changes would be ‘Riviera’ Plymouth-Exeter non-stop which implied that applied. Construction over such a period underwrote the essential qualities of a design that became the GWR’s premier express passenger locomotive except for the thirty ‘Kings’ which were basically reserved for the heaviest and most prestigious duties. The core presence established by the Castles in the company’s 4-6-0 fleet tended to deflect recognition from the first intention that the type was to have been an interim design.

it had been tested over a wide variety of workings. The account added ‘At the time the engine was put into service the proper boiler was not ready, and it was sent out temporarily with a No. 1 standard boiler [NB Two years earlier! - Ed]. A short time ago the engine was withdrawn from traffic and sent into the Swindon factory to receive her proper boiler…’.

The magazine extemporised in January 1922 by adding ‘In the case of the locomotive works at Swindon, probably the leading item of interest was the bringing up to date of the mixed-traffic engine No. 4700, 2-8-0 type…. In July last a No. 7 Standard boiler was substituted…. The steam admission pipes to the cylinders are now taken through the smokebox and coupled externally to the cylinders. A number of similar engines are under course of construction.’ As modified, No. 4700 proved a splendid performer, and together with its eight companions, these engines received only minimal changes during their long careers.

Churchward’s pioneering investigation into boiler efficiency in the early 1900s had been outstandingly successful, most prominently in creation of the Swindon Standard No. 1 boiler. This vessel was carried by the 4-cylinder 4-6-0 Star Class, their 2-cylinder companions the Saints, and the 2-8-0 Class 28xx, arguably the country’s most effective heavy freight locomotive until the 1950s. The boiler’s reputation was such that its failure to satisfy greater demands when fitted to the prototype mixed traffic 2-8-0 No. 4700 was a surprise.

This design was Churchward’s last before retirement and in October 1921, the Great Western Railway Magazine reported that ‘…the locomotive was given an exhaustive trial and it did thoroughly good work on semi-fast passenger services..’ There followed a list of

The impact of the Standard No. 7 boiler was sufficient for preparation of drawings that demonstrated how this vessel might be fitted to Saint, Star and 28xx chassis.

Drawing No. 57830 shows the proposal for a ‘super-Star’:

22

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY Of the three candidates for the No. 7 boiler, the Star chassis seemed to offer the most potential and apparently enjoyed Collett’s support. While Churchward had pretended indifference towards his 4-cylinder 4-6-2 No. 111 The Great Bear, Collett reputedly actively disliked the Pacific. With his innately cautious nature, he might have viewed it as a step too far thus adding to the reasons for its early conversion once the Castle formula had been proven. Also, the new 47xx boiler and its proven capacity offered a safe option in the cause of 4-6-0 enlargement but this course was ruled out by the Civil Engineer on grounds of weight. This forced Collett to develop another boiler with reduced dimensions which became the Standard No. 8, and which was regarded initially as a compromise, possibly interim solution. Had the ‘super-Star’ with a Standard No. 7 boiler been allowed to proceed, the course of later 4-6-0 development might have been rather different:

Boiler

Star*

47xx

4073

Std No.1

Std No.7

Std No.8

Barrel - length

14’ 10”

14’ 10”

14’ 10”

- diameter

4’ 103/4” to 5’ 6”

5’ 6” - 6’ 0”

5’ 2” - 5’ 9”

8’ 6”

8’ 111/4”

8’ 81/2”

- tubes

1599

2062

1886

- firebox

155

170

164

- s/ heater

260

324

263

- total

2014

2556

2313

Grate (sq/ft)

27.1

30.3

30.3

Pitch H.S. (sq/ft)

* The Star’s dimensions are based on No. 4021 fitted with the Swindon standard No. 3 superheater.

Above: This view shows a first series production Castle in its original as built condition. No. 4087 Cardigan Castle was completed in June 1925 (Lot No. 232) as part of the second batch. By then, the type was known as the ‘Castle Class’ as opposed to the short-lived ‘Enlarged Star’ appellation. The latter reflected the transitional process from the last Churchward 4-cylinder 4-6-0, No. 4072 Tresco Abbey which had appeared in February 1923. With only a six-month interval before the appearance of No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle, there was an understandable tendency to regard the new design merely as a continuation of the Star type with which it shared some key dimensions (e.g. wheel diameters and wheelbase). The most visible differences were the larger boiler, the curvaceous outside steam pipes, and the side-window cab. The latter was a considerable improvement over the spartan style of the Stars.

The process of subtle change had already commenced with the second batch. Engines in Lot No. 232 were built without bogie brakes but retained the Star-style frames at the front end. These were ‘joggled’ inward just ahead of the bogie pivot to provide adequate clearance for the leading bogie wheels. Lot Nos. 224 & 232 covering Nos. 4073-92 were the only class members built new with this frame type, as evident in the narrower fluted housing for the inside valves. Later styling variations with this feature are discussed overleaf.

23

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

This page: No. 4074 Caldicot Castle, the second of the class (Lot No. 224) appeared in December 1923 and apart from carrying bogie brakes would have then looked just like No. 4087 discussed on the previous page. On 15 March 1958, No. 4074 was at Swindon waiting to enter the works (above). The original joggled frames remain but it now has the narrow version of the modern box-like inside valve casing (a combination apparently confined to Nos. 4074/ 77/ 85 and the Star rebuild Nos. 5083-92). The old form of valve spindle covers remain. In April 1957 it was fitted with a 4-row superheater with lubricator placed ahead of the RH (later style) steam pipe. The second view dated 29 August 1959 (below) shows this engine at Royal Oak. It had been elevated to ‘super-Castle’ status in April 1959 by acquisition of a double chimney despite having been earmarked for withdrawal as early as 1955 due to its age and accrued mileage (it lasted in service until May 1963). Other earlier changes were external rear sand boxes, a speedometer and parallel buffers.

R C Riley (RCR 11509 & 14194).

24

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY BOGIE BRAKES Saints, Stars and 4-6-2 No. 111 The Great Bear were built with bogie brakes as were Castles Nos. 4073-82, but this equipment was soon removed (a process which began as early as November 1923 and concluded during 1926). The top view shows the bogie of No. 111 following its rebuilding in September 1924 as the eleventh Castle, and now bearing the name Viscount Churchill.

For comparison the second image shows the same locomotive following removal of its bogie brakes.

The extra braking power had been assessed as too marginal to justify the capital and maintenance expense. It was rumoured that Collett’s directive to remove these brakes was not viewed favourably by the retired Churchward, who had advocated their fitment. Incidentally, bogie brakes were also removed by the LMS soon after William Stanier transferred from Swindon.

FRAMES, INSIDE VALVE CASINGS & SPINDLE COVERS, AND BUFFERS The fifteen Star rebuilds (Nos. 4000/ 9/ 16/ 32/ 7 plus 5083-92) all retained their original frames but had rear extensions welded on to accommodate the larger Standard No. 8 boiler and deeper Castle cab. For No. 111 the frames were shortened at the rear and also cut between the centre and trailing driving axles to accept welded frame inserts as the Star/ Castle driving wheel base was nine inches longer between these two axles.

Variety in external front end detail was most prominent in different forms of inside valve casings. The first variation stemmed from the change from the Star-type joggled frame to the straight frame used with No. 4093 onward, suitably cut out (or ‘dished’) to provide the requisite bogie wheel clearance. The fluted inside valve frame casing style continued with Nos. 4093-9/ 500012 but was wider to conform with the greater distance between the frames at the front end.

This close up view of Castle No. 4009 Shooting Star (i.e. prior to its re-identification as No. 100A1 Lloyds) shows that it has been updated by provision of the fluted valve casing in replacement of the rather plain box-like casing applied to the early Stars. However, it retains the old style spindle covers and ‘Dew’ pattern tapered buffer stocks, which were fitted to all Castles when built/ rebuilt.

25

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Top: This handsome view of No. 4085 Berkeley Castle leaving Paddington with the 2.10pm to Gloucester on 30 August 1958, demonstrates the piecemeal nature of modernisation. Joggled frames and original style valve spindle covers remain but modernity is evident in parallel buffers, the more accentuated curving of the outside steam pipes, upper lamp mounted on the smoke box door, and the cab corners stripped of their brass beading.

R C Riley (RCR 12668).

Middle: No. 5013 introduced a more box-like inside valve cover reminiscent of the early (i.e. pre No. 4021) Stars but leavened by a curved leading upper edge similar to that applied on the last ten Kings. This view of No. 5081 which probably dates from war-time or early post-war days, illustrates this style.

Below: The smooth finish of the tread plate between the frames and the curved leading edge was presumably found dangerous in offering poor footing so safety plating was fitted onto the central casing; the original curving can just be discerned in this view of No. 5058 Earl of Clancarty. This engine also has an additional smaller sheet of plating fitted resulting in a twotier tread plate. This was the last profile introduced although the second central plate was missing in some cases. This view also shows the later form of ‘Turton’ pattern buffer with parallel stocks and the more modern form of spindle cover.

Above: A wider version of the fluted style of inside valve casing continued with straight-framed Nos. 4093-9, 5000-12, as shown in this close-up of No. 5006 Tregenna Castle.

26

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: No. 5005 Manorbier Castle was subjected to radical front-end treatment by being semi-streamlined in 1935, which exercise is discussed more fully on page 32. Here safety considerations were apparently inconsequential. The smooth convex shape of the casing would have made hazardous any activity around the front end above buffer beam height, such as affixing the train reporting number frame. Removal of the buffer beam and front end shrouding from No. 5005 was the first stage on its return to conventional condition and exposed an unusual from of valve casing (right); it remained in this unique form until withdrawal in February 1960.

Right: Conversion of Star Class Nos. 4063-72 to Castle Class Nos. 5083-92 was drawn-out between 1937 and 1940. Retention of joggled frames resulted in a further variant where the narrower form of the box-like casing was combined with the curved leading edge as shown here with No. 5083.

Below: In BR days a limited programme of frame renewal was instituted whereby new half front frames were fitted to some of the early Castles. No. 4091 Dudley Castle was so treated in November 1951 when curiously it was uniquely fitted with replacement joggled half frames. Others in this programme, all fitted with new straight frames were Nos. 4076/ 8/ 80/ 87-90 and 4082 (by now renumbered 7013), plus Star rebuild Nos. 4037, 5084/ 8; they also acquired the square form of inside valve casing as shown here with No. 5088.

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: Policy seems to have been flexible with the inside casing style for the last forty class members as shown here with No. 7021 Haverfordwest Castle (left) which has the raised additional tread plate. This feature is missing with No. 7037 Swindon (right) although in this case the later form of inside valve spindle covers appear to have been ‘bulled up’, perhaps for its naming ceremony. Both locomotives are fitted with the later parallel style of buffers, which Swindon began retrospectively fitting to the class during the 1950s.

The dimensional differences between the frames of Star, Castle and The Great Bear are summarised below. Although the process to which No. 111 The Great Bear was subjected was officially designated a rebuild, in reality very little of the original locomotive remained. Installation of a new frame set would have been easier and possibly cheaper but it is surmised that the complex modifications were followed as part of the pretence. Judging by the comments of the driver to C. Youlden at Exeter a few weeks before No. 111’s final withdrawal, it was in severely run-down condition with probably poor frame condition the root cause.

Star

The Great Bear

Castle

Front buffer beam to bogie pivot

7’ 0”

7’ 0”

7’ 0”

Bogie pivot to 1st axle

9’ 0”

9’ 0”

9’ 0”

1st to 2nd axle

7’ 0”

7’ 0”

7’ 0”

2nd to 3rd axle

7’ 9”

7’ 0”

7’ 9”

3rd axle to draw beam rear face

6’ 6”

14’ 0” *

7’ 6”

Total Length

37’ 3”

54’ 0”

38’ 3”

The second production run of new locomotives, starting with No. 5013 introduced a modified boiler and firebox:

Boiler Type Barrel

Std No.1 *

Std No.8

8’ 2”

9’ 2”

4’ 9”

5’ 0”

- height

6’ 6”

6’ 9”

Cab front to draw beam rear face

4’ 6”

5’ 6”

197

- 5 /4” tubes

14

14

- superheater elements

84

84

- tubes

1885.6

1857.7

- superheater

262.6

262.6

- firebox

163.8

162.7

Grate (sq/ft)

30.3

29.4

The purpose was to increase width of the water space at the expense of a slight reduction in the grate size.

SUPERHEATERS Swindon had been a pioneer in superheating with the Churchward 4-6-0s (led by Saint Class No. 2901 Lady Superior in 1906). Mainly reliant on good Welsh steam coal for fuel, continuation with the 2-row superheater was considered adequate in 1923 but as higher degrees of superheat were taken up elsewhere, there was a view that Swindon’s policy was becoming outmoded. Commentator Cecil J Allen remarked that the 2-row apparatus which was estimated to raise steam temperature to about 525oF was little more than a steam dryer. Before moving to the LMS, Stanier had advocated replacement with 3-row equipment. This was rejected by Collett who had good authority for this view.

Churchward had concluded that higher temperatures demanded more comprehensive lubrication while increasing the risk of carbonisation of piston valves, and that these factors tended to negate the benefits.

Firebox - width

201

Heat Surfaces (sq/ft)

14’ 10” x 4’ 11” to 5’ 6” 14’ 10” x 5’ 2” to 5’ 9”

- length

- 2’ tubes 1

The need for different frames is indicated by these dimensional differences: Castle

From 5013

Number of:

* Dimensions re trailing axle excluded.

Star

Up to 5012

Matters changed through the Second World War as coal mines responded to vastly increased energy needs

* Fully coned (D4) version.

28

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY by focussing on the more accessible and better quality seams. This had longer term consequences generally for the industry’s extraction costs and more specifically for the railways as coal quality deteriorated and supplies became less reliable. This situation continued post-war, enhancing the case for higher degrees of superheat to off-set the deleterious impact of reduced combustion rates.

In April 1946, Hawksworth was decisive in the matter as his forty Castles numbered 5098/ 9/ 7000-37 were all built with 3-row equipment. The final stage was reached in September 1947 when No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe received a 4-row superheater that raised the temperature to an estimated 660oF. In original form, 150 boilers were built with a superheater heating surface of 262 sq ft up to 1940. Three-row boilers (313 sq ft) totalled 54 built 1946-50 and 46 four-row boilers (393 sq ft) had appeared when construction ceased in 1960. Subsequently, older locomotives were fitted with 3-row or 4-row equipment (earliest was No. 4074) and there were cases of 4-row engines reverting to 3-row.

Above: No. 5000 Launceston Castle is seen leaving Paddington with the 1.18 pm for Bristol on 22 August 1959. It was fitted with a 3-row superheater in June 1957 and remained in this condition until withdrawal in October 1964.

R C Riley (RCR 14168).

The final modification relating to superheating concerned boilers Nos. 6688 and 7671, which concurrent with the acquisition of double chimneys received smokeboxes that were four inches longer than the norm, to improve access to the header. Locomotives carrying these boilers were:

The last distribution across the class was: Sub-class

2-row

3-row

4-row

4073-99/ 5000-12

23

7

10

5013-82/ 93-97

16

29

30

4090

Nov-60 to Jun-63 Apr-57 to Nov-60

Jun-63

5083-92

3

4

3

4093

Dec-57 to Mar-60

-

Sep-64

5098-99/ 7000-37

-

13

27

5068

-

Mar-61 to Sep-62

Sep-62

Loco No.

Boiler No. 6688

Boiler No. 7671

Locomotive Withdrawn

Bottom: No. 4093 Dunster Castle was at Old Oak Common on 16 August 1959, fitted with double chimney and extended smokebox boiler No. 6688. This modification took place during a Heavy General at Swindon between March-December 1957. R C Riley (RCR 14159).

29

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL LUBRICATORS

Of the final ‘5098’ sub-Class, Nos 7000-37 were fitted with mechanical lubricators mounted on the forward section of the right-hand running plate in the vicinity of the smokebox, specifically to meet the greater lubrication demands on cylinders, valves and regulator. Nos. 5098/ 9 were later equipped with this type of lubricator, presumably following realisation that the traditional system was inadequate to cope with the higher degree of superheat. The casing on the right-hand smokebox side was more elongated than previously and some associated pipework was external. The left-hand smokebox side was ‘clean’ i.e. no casing or blister, as had originally been the case with locomotives up to No. 5012 Berry Pomeroy Castle.

Locomotives Nos. 4073-99, 5000-12 plus No. 111 and the five early Star rebuilds were provided with 3-glass sight feed lubricators with piping which passed under the boiler lagging and emerged under the cover on the right hand side of the smokebox. Locomotives Nos. 5013-99 had 5-glass sight feed lubricators with the piping split to proceed along both sides under the lagging, as evidenced by an additional smaller cover (or ‘blister’) on the left hand side of the smokebox.

These casings enclosed the lubricator shut-off cocks and elbow pipes that entered the smokebox. Older locomotives were retrospectively fitted with 5-glass lubricators but to what extent is unclear.

Above: The mechanical lubricators that accompanied introduction of 3-row superheaters were initially positioned to the rear of the outside right hand steam pipe as with No. 4082 Windsor Castle (originally No. 7013). This arrangement was relatively short-lived as this location hampered access to the inside motion. The location is Wolverhampton Low Level on Royal Train duty.

E A Elias.

Left: The front end of No. 4080 Powderham Castle showing the lubricator installed ahead of the steam pipe, concurrent with fitting of a 4-row superheater and double chimney in August 1958. This photograph was taken on 11 April 1964 inside the Old Oak Common Roundhouse.

Standing behind the Castle are Collett ‘Hall’ Class 4-6-0 Nos. 6937 Conyngham Hall, 6947 Helmingham Hall and Churchward ‘47xx’ Class 2-8-0 No. 4703.

No. 4080 had just been transferred to the London shed from Cardiff East Dock, but only has a further fourmonths in traffic before withdrawal and subsequent scrapping at the yard of Cashmore’s in Newport.

R C Riley (RCR 17488).

30

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

On 23 September 1960, No. 4087 Cardigan Castle was approaching Saltash with an Up service, This was one of five fitted with the Davis & Metcalf valve-less lubricator (the others were Nos. 4088, 5084, 7013 [previously 4082], 7014). The lubricator was positioned ahead of the outside steam pipe in the normal fashion while the oil reservoir was mounted on the smokebox side.

R C Riley (RCR 15372).

OIL BURNERS

rock steady, consistently at blowing off point and had the programme continued, consideration of higher degrees of superheat might have proved unnecessary.

Performance-wise, the main unknown was what effect oil-burning would have had on boiler and firebox life.

Post-war problems in coal supply led to conversion of some locomotives to burn oil. On average, coal prices in 1945 were about 180% the 1938 level and roughly commensurate with heavy bunker-C type oil which was used in the programme. During 1945-7, commencing with classes 28xx/ 2884, thirty-seven locomotives were converted including Castle Nos. 100A1, 5039/ 79/ 83/ 91. After teething problems had been rectified, steaming performance proved impressive in all those converted (2-8-0s [19 engines], Halls [12],Castle [5], 2-6-0 63xx [1]). The Castles’ steaming rates were

For all its technical promise, the exercise was ill-timed as the UK’s desperate financial condition necessitated a major devaluation in sterling. Coupled with scarcity of foreign exchange to pay for imported fuel, the programme had lost its financial viability and was soon terminated. The Castles were all restored as coal burners before the end of 1948.

Right: There were a few pairings of 3500-gallon tenders with Castles post-World War 2 and two cases involved were oil-burners. Here converted tender No. 2014 is seen attached to No. 5091 Cleeve Abbey, with which it was paired from October 1946 to February 1947.

Note also in this case that cab-side shutters are in place.

GWR Official.

31

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL STREAMLINING

These activities included adoption of art deco styling wherever possible to imply modernity and progress, typified in the circular GWR emblem commonly known as the ‘shirt button’. Perhaps the pair had more appreciation of aerodynamics than might have been expected as the focus seems to have been to reduce drag through application of fairing. Aesthetics aside, the buffer beam and cylinder shrouding was discarded in September 1935 as this induced overheating in the cylinders. The precedent having been set, removal of the other ’bits’ proceeded over following years, concluding with the wedge-shaped cab in June 1947.

Finally, the only residual evidence which remained until withdrawal was two sliding shutters in the cab roof and a ‘lug’ on the front of the inside piston valve casing. This is usually reported as a unique snifting valve but alternatively it was a fitting to support the frame for a train reporting number, following removal of the buffer beam shrouding.

Rather surprisingly, the GWR was the first of the Big Four to indulge in this fad. (The cladding applied to LNER 4-6-4 Class W1 [1929] No. 10000 was to accommodate the unusual shape of the water tube boiler; the smoke box layout for 2-8-2 Class P2 [1934] Nos. 2001/ 2 was for smoke lifting purposes). Nos. 5005 Manorbier Castle and 6014 King Henry VII were dressed up following a design process by Messrs Collett and Hawksworth where plasticine was attached to a desk model in silver of a ‘King’. The story might be apocryphal but the process aped a styling method habitually used for the formation of complex shapes in the days before Computer Aided Design.

Neither officer apparently had any enthusiasm for the exercise but were following orders in connection with the 1935 celebrations for the company’s centenary.

Above and right: These front and rear three-quarter views of No. 5005 Manorbier Castle at Plymouth in May 1935, are slightly blurred but comprehensively record the treatment before undressing commenced.

The cost-benefit justification for the exercise seemed doubtful and while it appears railwaymen and enthusiasts disliked the result, reportedly the travelling public was more ambivalent. Installation took place as part of a General overhaul at Swindon between January and April 1935.

32

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: Safely back to normal, No. 5005 attracts admirers as it approaches Teignmouth on 14 July 1959 with a north to west passenger service. The lug or snifting valve can be seen on the centre of the inside valve casing.

R C Riley (RCR 13864).

MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES

– Automatic Train Control was fitted to Nos. 4084-95 and to No. 5003 upwards as built. The earlier locomotives were so equipped within a relatively short period.

Locomotives were progressively modified in the light of experience in a number of ways:

– Cab porthole windows which harked back to the Dean era were fitted in pairs in the cab front above the firebox on the earlier locomotives. These may have been useful with lower, smaller boilers but they seemed to serve no practical purpose with the Standard No. 8 boiler and were soon blanked out or plated over.

– Air raid precautions included replacement of cab side windows with a metal plate. Due to post-war shortages, some locomotives had only one cab window restored initially; this exercise was completed in 1947.

Also framing was installed on tenders to support canvass sheeting that entirely enclosed the rear of the cab, a measure which must have made footplate conditions almost intolerable.

– Cab roof gutter which slanted down towards the leading corner of the cab roof was unique to No. 4073 and soon removed.

– Cab side handrails were fitted horizontally just below the lower line of the window on locomotives up to No. 5097 Sarum Castle. This handrail was set slightly lower on the oil-burners to allow room for the sliding shutter over the side window. The final forty had L-shaped handrails, following the leading profile of the window and extending about half-way up the vertical side. To the eagle-eyed observer in 1952, this feature on No. 4082 would have provided further evidence of the deceit vis-à-vis No. 7013.

– Coupling rod knuckle joints, judging from photo evidence were fitted ahead of the connecting rod big end up to No. 5012 and more conventionally to the rear on later locomotives.

33

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL – Driving wheels reduced to 6’ 6” diameter (from the standard 6’ 81/2”) were fitted to No. 5001 Llandovery Castle from December 1926 until March 1928 for evaluation purposes in connection with development of the ‘King’ Class. The modification was achieved by using second-hand wheels with tyres appropriately turned down.

– Speedometers were fitted as standard from No. 5033 Broughton Castle when new in May 1935, and by 1938 all then in service had received this equipment.

Supply shortages meant that some locomotives built post-war initially worked without this aid.

– Outside steam pipes followed a similar format to that which accompanied the saturated No. 1 boiler fitted to 4-4-2 French Compound No. 104 Alliance in 1907. These pipes, which were located more prominently than on the Frenchman, became a distinctive trademark for all the Castles and Kings (and also retroactively Star Nos. 4001/ 24/ 35/ 40/ 43/ 48/ 49/ 51-3/ 55/ 57/ 60). As the original form was prone to cracking, in BR days a new style was adopted where the reverse curve was more accentuated which solved this problem.

– Safety valve bonnets with the older tall profile were carried by Nos. 4009/ 88 before the war for a period and due to supply shortages by Nos. 5029/ 97 in the mid1940s.

Speedometers were manufactured by British Thomson Houston and were driven by the right trailing driving wheel crankpin.

This connected to a cab mounted voltmeter in mph divisions.

– Upper lamp brackets were fitted to the upper quadrant of the smokebox door from No. 5023 Brecon Castle upwards when new. Earlier engines whose brackets had been fitted atop of the smokebox were changed to conform and all had been so treated by 1936. This was a sensible safety measure although the bracket mounted on the smokebox top of streamlined No. 5005 Manorbier Castle was particularly difficult to reach. Grab handles and a footstep were mounted on the right-hand side of the smokebox although access remained hazardous with the convex front end shrouding.

– Sandboxes were originally provided for gravity feed in front of the leading and centre driving wheels on Nos. 4073-99, 5000-12 and the early rebuilds. This could be inadequate with tender first running e.g. working empty stock into or out of Paddington and also service trains over the gradients of the Kingswear branch. Although turntables were located at Newton Abbot and Kingswear (and in the later 1950s at Goodrington), this practice reduced the number of light engine movements during the congested summer season. Most of the early engines had their centre sandboxes relocated on external mountings below the cab. The rear sandboxes from No. 5013 upwards were more discreetly placed beneath the cab. Eventually sandpipes were fitted to the front and rear of the driving wheel sets throughout the class.

– Whistle shields were installed on Nos. 4082/ 5 in 1925/ 6 and to all locomotives from No. 5000 upwards on construction. All the remainder were retrospectively treated by 1936.

Above: On 6 April 1938 and possibly its first outing since rebuilding, No. 5092 Tresco Abbey was at Bristol Bath Road displaying the original steam pipe form. The same engine was heading an Up express away from Teignmouth on 14 July 1958 and was by then equipped with a 3-row superheater (fitted November 1957). Graduation to a 4-row version plus double chimney would follow in October 1961, and then withdrawal in July 1963.

R C Riley (RCR 246 & 12269).

34

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY TENDERS The locomotive was synonymous with its companion high-sided 4000-gallon tender, either the Collettstyle that was a logical descendant of the traditional GWR tender, or the more radical second Hawksworth type with its simpler, cleaner lines. However, early class members were initially coupled to second-hand tenders or to new standard Churchward 3500-gallon tenders. Even the early LNER pacifics whose operating performance would be revolutionised under the influence of Pendennis Castle were paired with large purpose-designed 8-wheeled tenders, albeit surmounted by GNR-style coal rails. Perhaps in view of the early ‘Enlarged Star’ status, use of existing types was deemed all that was necessary.

Despite the perception that early Castles ran only with 3500-gallon vehicles, actually seven Deandesign 4000-gallon tenders worked with eight different locomotives. Twenty of this type (Nos. 1456-61/ 1509-18/ 39/ 60-2) were built between April 1900 and February 1904, and all but the last three (Nos. 1560-2) originally had coal rails. These were later replaced by side fenders, initially of the short variety but lengthened by the time they reached the Castles. Nos 1561/ 2 started their careers with particularly distinguished companions, respectively 2-8-0 prototype No. 97 and 4-6-0 No. 171 Albion.

The Castle/ Dean 4000-gallon pairings are listed below:

Tender No.

Tender Lot No.

Tender Built

Locomotive No.

Dates

1457

A46

May-00

4079

Nov-26 > May-27

1509

A51

Sep-01

4097

May-28 > Jul-29

4076

Oct-27 > Jan-29

4079

May-27 > Mar-29

4083

Jun-26 > May-27

1513

A51

May-01

4088

Sep-42 > Apr-43

1515

A51

May-01

4077

Jul-28 > Apr-29

1539

A53

Jun-01

4091

Jul-25 > Aug-27

1561

A56

Jul-03

4076

Jun-35 > Aug-35

1582

A60

Feb-04

5001

Sep-26 > Mar-30

Below: This view of No. 4088 Dartmouth Castle coupled to Dean tender No. 1513 is interesting for various reasons. The side fender has been lengthened and also extended around the rear of the vehicle. Also, a tall safety valve bonnet has been fitted (q.v.) and the first three coaches are a Concertina Brake Third, a 70’ bow ended Composite, and another Concertina Brake coach.

35

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL The standard Churchward 3500-gallon tender of which there were 639 examples built between June 1905 and April 1925, were more commonly associated with the early Castles. Tender No. 2210 was brand new when it emerged from Swindon with locomotive No. 4073 in August 1923. Three more 3500-gallon tenders followed in the period up to October 1930 of which No. 1649 was the oldest (built c. May 1900). No. 4073 received its first 4000-gallon companion in May 1930 but reverted to the 3500-gallon Collett variety between February and December 1931. The class prototype worked with 22 different tenders between 1923 and 1960 which reflects typical rotational frequency and

the complexity of tender-locomotive pairing records.

No. 4083 Abbotsbury Castle underwent 42 changes of partners in the period 1925-58.

Lot No. A112 comprised ten 3500-gallon tenders Nos. 2374-83 built July 1925-January 1926 and labelled ‘Intermediate’. They differed from the standard Churchward 3500-gallon version in having higher sides and longer side fenders but apparently with the same carrying capacities (full and empty weights have not been traced). New or nearly new tenders Nos. 2374-6/ 78/ 80/ 81/ 83 are known to have run with locomotives Nos. 100A1[4009]/ 4016/ 32/ 37/ 74/ 77/ 84-88/ 92 during the 1920s.

Above: No. 4016 Knight of the Golden Fleece following rebuilding as a Castle in October 1925. It was coupled to then new 3500-gallon ‘Intermediate’ tender No. 2380. This engine was also uniquely fitted with a small outside steam pipe which acted as an exhaust feed to the injector.

From around 1930, 4000-gallon tenders became standard equipment for the whole class although there were occasional reversions to the smaller variety. Postwar, there were occasional uses of 3500-gallon tenders and the following were recorded. Tender Nos. 2253/ 6 formed part of ten-strong Lot A118 built 1929/ 30 with the Collett-style of continuous wrap-around fender: Tender No.

Loco No.

Period

2014

5091*

Oct-46 to Feb-47

2141

5039*

Dec-46 for 10 days

4032

Aug-46 to Jan-47

5098

Jan-47 to Nov-48

5034

Nov-48 to Jan-49

4087

Jun-46 to Nov-46

2253

2256

to the underframe. In March 1935, fairing was fitted to the footplate end of No. 2430 in connection with the streamlining treatment applied to locomotive No. 5005. This addition apparently hampered access to the coal space and seems to have been an early candidate for removal in the piecemeal restoration to conventional condition.

The only significant divergence was with tender No. 2586 which was experimentally built in August 1931 with a rigid eight-wheeled frame. Conventional braking was fitted to the wheels on the first, second and fourth axles from the front while the third was brakeless as otherwise the rigging would have fouled the water pick-up gear.

This tender rotated exclusively among Castles from new until end 1945 but was later used with other classes: Loco No.

4098 Nov-46 to Apr-47 * Equipped with oil tank in the coal space while the locomotive was working as an oil-burner.

5001 Llandovery Castle

A total of 461 Collett-pattern 4000-gallon tenders were built between September 1926 and July 1946, and this type was most commonly associated with the class. While the basic style and appearance remained unchanged during those years, minor modifications were affected 36

Period Oct-31 to Aug-36

5032 Usk Castle

Jul-35 to May-40

5071 Clifford Castle/ Spitfire

Jun-40 to May-42

5049 Earl of Plymouth

Apr-42 to Jun-44

5017 St Donats Castle

Jun-44 to Dec-45

5068 Beverston Castle

Apr-48 to Nov-49

4093 Dunster Castle

Dates Unknown

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

The unique eight-wheel 4000g Collett tender No. 2586, coupled to its first Castle recipient No. 5001 Llandovery Castle in 1933.

The final tender type was the Hawksworth 4000-gallon vehicle introduced in October 1946. This was stylistically similar to the thirty specially built for the 4-6-0 Counties (although the latter differed in having a 6-inch wider body, greater coal capacity, and 1.7 tons more in all-up weight).

J Paterson.

water capacity was reduced to 3800 gallons. No. 4127 (withdrawn August 1962) was painted in lined green and No. 4128 (withdrawn August 1958) in lined mixed traffic black. They were unpopular with firemen being awkward to work and their use with Castles was mainly for restricted periods only. Known pairings were: tender No. 4127 with locomotives Nos. 5009 (date unrecorded) 5070 (apparently for a short period in November 1952); 5080 (July to September 1953); 5081 (September to November 1952); 5015 (January 1954); 5086 (date unrecorded) and tender No. 4128 with locomotive No. 5084 (three days in March 1952).

A total of 107 tenders (numbered 4000-9/ 4030126) were built between October 1946 and February 1951 for use with Castles, Halls, Modified Halls and occasionally Stars. Through rotation they intermingled with the Collett 4000-gallon type and their clean lines complemented their Castle companions.

The most significant pairing was with No. 7018 Drysllwyn Castle for an extended period in the summer of 1956 in connection with development of the double chimney (q.v.). It is personally attested that the livery was lined green implying its identity as No. 4127 but the precise dates of the pairing do not seem to have been recorded.

Finally, two Hawksworth tenders numbered 4127/ 8 were delivered in March/ February 1952 respectively.

They were equipped with coal-weighing apparatus to assist in road testing and were dimensionally similar to the standard Hawksworth type except that the

Left: Swindon resident No. 5009 Shrewsbury Castle is seen paired with lined green selfweighing tender No. 4127. The original form of the outside steampipe and late Great Western ‘double waist’ livery of the leading coach, would suggest this image dates from mid 1952.

This class member had a rather unremarkable life, in that it remained in pretty much as built condition until withdrawal in October 1960.

J D Mills.

37

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL Leading dimensions of tenders employed: Designer

Dean

Churchward

Churchward Intermediate

Collett 6-Wheel

Collett 8-Wheel

Hawksworth

Hawksworth Self-Weighing

Built

1900-4

1905-25

1925-6

1926-46

1931

1946-51

1952

4’ later 4’ 11/2”

4’ later 4’ 11/2”

1

4’ 1 /2”

1

4’ 1 /2”

3’ 8”

1

4’ 1 /2”

4’ 11/2”

4000

3500

3500

4000

4000

4000

3800

7

7

7

6

6

6

6

- empty

19.25

18.25

Unknown

22.5

24.95

23.25

26.5

- full

43.15

40

Unknown

46.7

49.4

47.3

49.9

Wheel Diameter Water (gallons) Coal (tons) Weight (tons)

NB Wheelbase was standardised at 7’ 6” + 7’ 6” except for Collett 8-wheeler which was 5’ 0” + 5’ 0” + 5’ 0”.

Differing dimensions for tenders adapted for oil-burner locomotives: Designer

Churchward

Collett

Equipped For Oil

1945-9

1947-9

Fuel Oil (gallons)

1800

1950

- empty

22.05

26

- full

45.3

53.15

Number Converted

22

17

but was restored on the locomotives rebuilt as Castles.

The precise date of this revision is unclear but No. 4073 was delivered in this more ornate livery and is directly associated with its welcome introduction.

Locomotive and tender lining was in the pre-war style and this livery remained unchanged up to 1940 although No. 4089 experimentally ran in the early 1930s with a lighter shade of green. Evidence of corporate ownership on the tender sides was subject to change.

In 1921, GREAT WESTERN was applied to tenders and tanks alike with sufficient space in between for insertion of insignia, which was effected from 1923.

This took the form of the traditional coats of arms for London and Bristol encircled by a garter (known as the ‘Garter Crest’). However, this feature fell foul of the Royal College of Heralds in 1928 who advised that use of the garter in this manner was heraldically incorrect and it was removed, leaving the two city arms in place.

In 1934, the coats of arms were replaced by the art deco GWR circular monogram colloquially known as the ‘shirt button’.

Weight (tons)

In late GWR/ early BR days, Swindon investigated the use of aluminium in coach construction to reduce the tare without compromising bodily strength. There were less opportunities for this metal with locomotives but in 1950 Collett tender No. 2856 was fitted with an aluminium alloy water tank which reduced the weight empty to 18.85 tons. This tender was paired with locomotives Nos. – 5092 (Oct-50 to Aug-51); 5078 (Nov-51 to Oct-52); 4099 (Oct-52 to Feb-54); 4084 (Feb-54 to Feb-55); 5031 (Feb-55 to Jan-56).

From 1942, any repainting took the form of unlined green (except for Nos. 5001/ 19 which became black) with the shirt button replaced by G [two cities’ arms] W, which remained the standard form of insignia until nationalisation. From 1945, traditional lining was restored to those locomotives that had acquired unlined green or black during war. Around 1947, the brass beading on the leading cab corners was removed from all engines numbered 5012 and below but the reason remains unexplained.

LIVERY Austerity measures during the Great War saw locomotive liveries reduced to plain unlined midchrome green and an official specification for tender engines issued in January 1922 stipulated continued restraint i.e. absence of polished brass, green painted safety valve bonnets, number plates to have numbers and beading outlined in yellow, main body to remain green with lining only on express locomotives.

Under British Railways, an early change was addition of a painted white ‘W’ prefix above cab-side number plate before rendered unnecessary by the decision that GWR locomotives should retain their numerical identities. Castles so labelled for a short period were Nos. 111, 4084/ 7, 5001/ 10/ 18/ 19/ 22/ 35/ 41/ 48/ 65/ 77/ 88/ 97/ 99 & 7001. Cast iron number plates were mounted centrally on the smokebox door in line with the upper hinge. Removal of the traditional buffer beam number made locomotives carrying Train Reporting Numbers that much more anonymous on approach.

The following year there was a change of heart with a revised specification that was more ornate with restoration of copper cap chimneys plus polished brass for safety valve covers, cab side window frames, numbers and names. Classes qualifying for this treatment were Castle, Star, Saint, 4-4-0 County, and later King and Hall. Cab and splasher beading had been removed from Stars and Saints during the war, 38

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY When new Nos. 7010-3 plus Nos. 4089/ 91/ 5010/ 21/ 23 were experimentally painted in light green, lined red and grey before sense prevailed and lined mid-chrome green was restored (and applied to representatives of the other regions) in a style very similar to the prewar days. Main differences from about mid-1949 were reduction of cab lining to a rectangular panel below the side-window and cut-out, and elimination of lining on the firebox bands. A nice touch before adoption of BR’s ‘cycling lion’ tender emblem was the application of BRITISH RAILWAYS on a few engines in traditional GWR Egyptian font, colour and shading. The only official change thereafter was introduction of the ‘ferret and dartboard’ emblem in 1957, in replacement of BR’s ‘cycling lion’.

Left: No. 5050 Earl of St Germans stands at Newton Abbot on 6 February 1960, having just arrived with the 8.00am from Plymouth. The reduction of the cabside lining under British Railways to no longer encircle the window is clearly evident, as is the straight cabside handrail below the window. Also prominent is the route code disc and power classification letter (Red = over 17 tons 12 cwt axle weight, D = 33,000 lbs tractive effort). The abundance of brass beading embellishment contrasted particularly well with the green and orange, black, orange lining.

Peter W Gray.

Below: Pictured in the final livery guise bestowed upon the class, No. 5087 Tintern Abbey stands awaiting the ‘right away’ from Newport. The last style of British Railways emblem sits centrally on the somewhat slab-sided Hawksworth 4000-gallon water capacity tender, which also appears to be stocked to its 6-ton maximum load of coal.

Gerald Daniels.

39

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL NAMEPLATES The plates affixed to class members generally followed the established tradition of a steel backing plate edged with tubular brass beading, with 31/2” Egyptian font letters secured with brass rivets.

– Supplementary ‘Castle Class’ plates were attached to centre splasher faces below ‘non-Castle’ nameplates.

The first fitting was probably to No. 111 following conversion from a Pacific. These plates were added to the Aircraft series concurrent with locomotive renaming and to the Abbeys on rebuilding. Exceptions were those with long names and thus large nameplates – the Regiments Nos. 4016/ 37 and 5017. Also the ex-Earl Class nameplates (Nos. 5043-62) were manufactured to conform with the 5’ 8” driving wheels of the 4-4-0s.

Presumably re-design of the supplementary plate to conform with the different radius was unjustifiable cost-wise. The plate for No. 5063 Earl Baldwin, while never allocated to a 4-4-0, was similarly treated in not receiving the extra brass descriptor plate.

The right-hand nameplate of Ogmore Castle had finally ceased wandering and was on No. 7035 on 21 September 1955.

SUMMARY Generically, the four-cylinder 4-6-0 type in these islands was considered less than successful on all railways except the Great Western. It is all the more remarkable that discounting the experimental role of No. 4000 North Star, the production form pioneered with No. 4001 Dog Star in February 1907 set the template for a locomotive family that served the company and its successor with distinction for 59 years. This unparalleled record confirmed the brilliance of Churchward’s vision and the consistency of GWR locomotive practice maintained by Collett and Hawksworth.

Left-hand plate from No. 7005 (renamed in August 1957) showing the addition of ‘Castle Class’ below the main name.

The diverse range of modifications applied from 1923 until the early 1960s naturally bestowed benefits of varying significance and perhaps more strategic intent should have been employed in maximising the potential. The rationale for rebuilding ten of the youngest members of the Star class is hard to divine when perhaps the related (Government subsidised) expenditure might have been more usefully devoted in rejuvenation of others that were 14-15 years and many career miles older. Also, the 5098 series formed the basis for a cadre of 40 ‘super-Castles’ that could have formed the nucleus of a highly effective fleet to meet the demand for express passenger power with vigour and efficiency until the end of steam. That twelve of this series retained their original superheater configuration and single chimneys seems to have been a lost opportunity.

– Nomadic names, there were numerous name changes over the years (discussed in greater depth in the next chapter) but two names share the record for the number of locomotives that carried them: Denbigh Castle (carried by the following from new) No.

Subsequent Naming Event

Dates

5049

Replaced by Earl of Plymouth

Aug-36 to Aug-37

5074

Replaced by Hampden

Jul-38 to Jan-41

7001

Replaced by Sir James Milne

May-46 to Feb-48

7032

Carried until withdrawal

Jun-50 to Sep-64

Ogmore Castle (carried by the following from new) No.

Subsequent Naming Event

Dates

5006

Allocated but not carried

-

5056

Replaced by Earl of Powis

Jun-36 to Sep-37

5080

Replaced by Defiant

May-39 to Jan-41

7007

Replaced by Great Western

Jul-46 to Jan-48

7035

Carried until withdrawal

Aug-50 to Jun-64

However, analysis of the first forty new build Castles (Nos. 4073-99, 5000-12) reveals the following combinations: three-row superheater engines with single chimney – six; four-row with single chimney – one; four-row with double chimney – nine. This left 24 locomotives built 1923-7 in essentially original condition and still performing masterfully on the duties for which they had been designed.

40

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

THE NON-CASTLES f the 171 locomotives which through either new unfortunate. The best known related to the funeral train O construction or rebuild formed the class, some of HM King George VI which necessitated Nos. 4082 59 carried non-Castle names for either part or all of and 7013 to exchange identities in an inept subterfuge their careers. They formed a welcome break within the tedious lists of private addresses for the nobility and gentry that formed the mainstream of 4-6-0 naming policy in the later years of the company’s story.

that was immediately obvious to every knowledgeable boyhood trainspotter. On the other hand, Castles mainly acquired names that were unquestionably appropriate in an intermittent policy which happily continued into nationalisation days and which demonstrated that respect for the GWR’s rich heritage stood undiminished.

There follows a selection of locomotives that retained or were renamed with non-Castle identities.

Alternative names were chosen for a variety of reasons, a few of which were obscure. There were occasions where renaming for topical reasons could prove

No. 111 VISCOUNT CHURCHILL Concurrent with appointment of C B Collett as Chief Mechanical Engineer in January 1922, the role was modified in a significant way. Churchward had enjoyed a direct reporting line to the Board, allowing him to circumvent the General Manager at will, despite the latter being theoretically the Company’s chief executive officer. This clumsy arrangement should not have been tolerated in a modern corporation, especially as the CME thereby exercised untrammelled executive control over around 45% by value of the company’s book assets. In anticipation of the Grouping, the structure was changed so that the newly appointed GM (Felix Pole) had authority over Collett.

Charles Francis Spencer (Viscount Churchill), who was Chairman of the GWR between 1908 and 1934.

Collett had reputedly never favoured 4-6-2 No. 111 The Great Bear, the Great Western’s solitary Pacific built in February 1908 and it was an early candidate for rebuilding as a Castle. Churchward had always pretended disinterest in the engine but expressed genuine regret upon its withdrawal. Replacement provided Collett with a unique opportunity as although termed a rebuilding, all that was re-used would appear to have been the front part of the frames, perhaps the driving wheels, and the distinctive running number. To all intents and purposes, Castle No. 111 was a new locomotive to which the name Viscount Churchill was applied.

Reduction in his power and authority as compared with that enjoyed by his predecessor would have been unwelcome. Cultivation of his relationship with the Chairman would help job security and some re-assertion of the authority that had been reduced in the management reorganisation. Thus upon rebuild in September 1924, No.111 was named after Victor Albert

It was the fourth Castle to be withdrawn (in July 1953) and being virtually all new in 1924, this decision must have been based on the condition of that part of the frames taken from The Great Bear which would by then have been 45 years old.

Left: This photograph shows the locomotive in as rebuilt condition, still paired with a 3500g Churchward tender.

The date is therefore pre-July 1929 when it entered Swindon Works for a Light Casual repair, emerging with a Collett 4000g version.

The location is adjacent to the coal stage ramp at Old Oak Common, No. 111’s home shed for the majority of its working life.

Note it is yet to be fitted with the subsidiary ‘CASTLE CLASS’ plate below the nameplate.

41

Above: No. 111 Viscount Churchill climbing away from Totnes on 14 June 1952 with the 3.30 pm Paddington-Penzance service. By now the locomotive has the standard 4000-gallon tender and has acquired the subsidiary CASTLE CLASS plates. It was allocated to Plymouth Laira from where it would be withdrawn almost exactly 12 months later. The train comprises the usual mixture of GWR coaching stock.

Peter W Gray.

No. 4000 NORTH STAR North Star was a prominent name in the company’s history, carried by five different types. The first was the prototype of twelve 2-2-2 broad gauge engines built

by Robert Stephenson & Co between November 1837 and November 1841. This was the first conventional type following the oddities supplied to satisfy Brunel’s unusual dimensional demands. Effective and reliable, the first North Star worked until June 1871.

1897, presumably in anticipation of its use on 4-2-2 ‘Achilles’ Class No 3072 built in June 1898. In turn, the Dean single lost its name in early 1906 (and was rechristened Bulkeley in September 1906) making way for the name to be used on the prototype 4-cylinder 4-6-0 No 4000, built in April 1906. This locomotive was distinguishable from the other Stars in having a unique form of ‘scissors’ valve gear and in other details, most of which were discarded with its rebuild as a Castle with the same name and number in November 1929.

[The North Star is the brightest in the constellation Ursa Minor, and lies in a direct line with the Earth’s rotational axis ‘over’ the North Pole, albeit at a distance of around 400 light-years. Being almost stationary in the heavens, it is a valuable fixed point for celestial navigation].

Narrow gauge 2-2-2 No 380 of Class 378 was built in September 1866. The precise date of naming is uncertain; possibly there were broad and narrow gauge locomotives running concurrently, both named North Star. The narrow gauge name was removed about

Following rebuilding, this locomotive conformed with standard Castles except with regard to the setting of the main running plate which was marginally higher than the norm. This feature can be seen in the slightly deeper front and rear fall, in the valance which almost clears the cylinder casing, and in the shallower splashers.

Left: No. 4000 North Star is seen circa 1935, when it was allocated to Shrewsbury shed.

P J Garland.

42

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: Now under BR ownership, North Star is in charge of a Down train at Wolverhampton Low Level on 20 July 1950. It is apparent that this was another case of CASTLE CLASS subsidiary plates added in mid-career, and it was also one of the class never fitted with a fire iron tunnel. By this date, it was allocated to Stafford Road where it was mainly based until its withdrawal in May 1957. P J Garland collection.

No. 4009/ A1/ 100A1 SHOOTING STAR/ LLOYD’S Charles Collett had a habit of engaging in convoluted accounting gymnastics to justify new construction or rebuilding, and fifteen Stars were given the latter treatment to be converted into Castles. Built in May 1907, the number and naming history for Star/ Castle No. 4009 requires some explanation. Originally named Shooting Star it was rebuilt as a Castle in April 1925 but retained its original name and number. A shooting star is the common name for rocks or dust clouds from space that burn up on entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

A solid object so large that it fails completely to combust is a meteorite. In January 1936, this locomotive was re-styled No. A1 Lloyd’s and renumbered 100A1 the following month. This change was instituted because A1 was found to be confusing; for traffic purposes thereafter the locomotive was known as No. 100.

Initially a short number plate of the standard GWR font and letter/ figure size denoting ‘A1’ was fitted to the cabside. However, this denomination was moved lower and the number 100 on a separate plate was inserted immediately above. The front buffer beam number then read 100 A1. Selection of this number probably reflected the requirement that all vessels with a gross tonnage of 100 or more must appear on the register. Exactly why this name and unusual number style was chosen is unknown but it might have formed part of Collett’s efforts to ingratiate himself with Viscount Churchill, GWR chairman from 1908 until 1934. Churchill had extensive interests in the shipping sector.

No. 100A1 formed part of the short-lived oil-burner programme and was so fitted between 22 November 1946 and 4 August 1948; it was allocated to Old Oak Common continuously from 20 April 1934 until March 1950 when it became the first Castle to be taken out of service and cut up at Swindon within two months.

Lloyd’s Register of Shipping is a maritime classification society. Since 1764 it has, for insurance and charter purposes, published a register of the condition of all sea-going, self-propelled merchant vessels, based on independent surveyors’ reports. The Register’s 1775-6 edition adopted a grading system to describe a vessel’s condition. Ships’ hulls are assessed on a lettered scale, ‘A’ being the best. Equipment, fittings, engines, masts, rigging etc are assessed by number with 1 being the best. From this derived the term ‘A1’ or ‘A1 at Lloyd’s’ to reflect the best in maritime terms, and later in other fields.

The final batch of the class (Nos 7028 to 7037) was built between May and August 1950, so that although 171 were created through new construction or rebuilding, there was never more than 170 available for service at any one time. The following four images of No. 4009 demonstrate how a GWR 4-6-0 could change in small details over the years.

43

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL Top: Following conversion to a Castle, No. 4009 Shooting Star retained a 3500-gallon tender decorated with a garter coat of arms. The livery of the Toplight behind the tender and the Clerestory in the right background indicate the date must be soon after rebuilding.

Middle: This image of No. 4009 was taken after 13 July 1929, the date on which it was first coupled to a 4000-gallon tender, but it has acquired a tall safety valve bonnet since the previous view.

Real Photos.

Bottom left: From February 1936 the engine was styled No. 100 A1 Lloyd’s, as seen in Old Oak Common roundhouse showing the arrangement of cab side number plates.

William Clark.

Above: At Paddington station on 17 February 1936, the official renaming of No. 100A1 Lloyd’s takes place. Chairman of the Great Western Railway, Sir Robert Horne (later Viscount Horne) does the honours, accompanied by Mr Neville Dixey (Chairman of Lloyd’s). Also present (out of shot) was the locomotive’s designer and CME of the GWR, C B Collett.

44

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY No. 4016 KNIGHT OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE/ THE SOMERSET LIGHT INFANTRY (PRINCE ALBERT’S)

Above: No. 4016 started life as a Star named Knight of the Golden Fleece and is shown here following its conversion to a Castle in October 1925. It has acquired a large tender and also an external exhaust injector steam feed pipe emerging from the smokebox and disappearing behind the main steam pipe. This fitment is believed to have been unique to this locomotive.

Real Photos.

Below: In January 1938, the locomotive was renamed The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s), accommodated in three lines on a large nameplate that followed the profile of conventional nameplate and spacer combinations and with the regimental badge in brass relief on the centre splasher face. The only other Castle to adopt this format was No. 5017 from April 1954. No 4016 was another early withdrawal, from Old Oak Common in September 1951.

Real Photos.

45

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL No. 4032 QUEEN ALEXANDRA Built as Star Class No. 4032 Queen Alexandra in October 1910 it was rebuilt as a Castle April 1926, and concurrent with No. 4016 was the second to be withdrawn, in September 1951. HM Queen Alexandra was the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark.

She married Albert Edward, Prince of Wales in 1863 and held the title Princess of Wales until her husband became King Edward VII in 1901. A popular figure much devoted to charitable works, she outlived her husband and died in 1925, aged 80 years.

Right: The time is 3.10pm on the Cornish main line between Menheniot and Liskeard and No. 4032 Queen Alexandra heads a Down express near Treviddo Viaduct on 16 September 1950.

This rather camera shy locomotive spent virtually all of its postrebuild life based in Devon and Cornwall.

A Lathey.

No. 4037 QUEEN PHILIPPA/ THE SOUTH WALES BORDERERS The origins of the first name are obscure. It most probably referred to Philippa of Hainaut (born c. 1310), daughter of William I, Count of Hainaut (a region in the Low Countries), and a grand-daughter of King Philip III of France. She was married first by proxy, and later in a full ceremony at York Minster to King Edward III, soon after the latter’s accession. She bore thirteen children, including the Black Prince, and was much loved for her kindness and compassion. She died in 1369.

its stubborn defence of Rorke’s Drift in South Africa against overwhelming odds on 22-23 January 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War.

The South Wales Borderers was a line infantry unit whose origins went back to the 24th Regiment of Foot formed in 1624. Its strength was traditionally raised in the counties of Monmouth, Hereford and Brecknock; the regimental title did not take this form until 1881.

During its long history, the regiment accumulated many battle honours but the best known was won during

No. 4037 in the shed yard at Exeter on 23 June 1962. This locomotive started life as Star Class No. 4037 Queen Philippa in December 1910), was rebuilt as a Castle in June 1926, and renamed The South Wales Borderers in March 1937. At withdrawal in September 1962 its recorded mileage of 2,430,000 was the highest of any GWR locomotive. The nameplate was unique in style being a single large black plate similar to that fitted to Nos. 4016 and 5017 but with a slim green spacer panel between the plate and the splasher.

R C Riley (RCR 16597).

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY No. 5017 THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE REGIMENT 28TH 61ST The renaming in April 1954 of No. 5017 St. Donats Castle (built July 1932) as The Gloucestershire Regiment 28th 61st was unusual as it commemorated a specific event. The regiment (colloquially the ‘Glosters’) had fought in The Battle of the Imjin River during the Korean War. This was an action against vastly greater enemy forces conducted over three successive nights between 22-25 April 1951 while operating under the command of the United States 3rd Infantry Division and supported by a Troop of the 170th Heavy Mortar Battery, Royal Artillery. Comprising 657 men, the Glosters were spread in a defensive line over a 9-mile front and when finally ordered to withdraw, 63 survivors made it to safety while 56 soldiers had been killed and 522 taken prisoner, of whom 36 later died in captivity. General James Van Fleet commanding

the US 8th Army described the Glosters’ stand as “the most outstanding example of unit bravery in modern war”, and reported to the Commander-in-Chief, United Nations forces in Korea, that the regiment’s losses saved the lives of many times that number. The regiment, together with the Heavy Mortar Troop, was awarded the US Presidential Unit Citation.

The locomotive’s large nameplate was similar in style to that fitted to No. 4016 The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s) in 1938. The regimental badge in brass relief which was affixed to the centre splasher face, was dominated by the Sphinx which commemorated the regiment’s famous holding of the line at the Battle of Alexandria, Egypt in 1801 by fighting back-to-back against Napoleon’s Army of the East.

Below: No. 5017 was transferred from Worcester to Gloucester in November 1951, where it remained allocated until withdrawal in September 1962. It was a favourite to work the ‘Cheltenham Spa Express’ and this was probably its next turn of duty while waiting at Ranelagh Bridge on 30 March 1957. This wonderful photograph offers a wealth of detail: the greasy texture of the running gear, the unusual form of nameplate, the ‘pep pipe’ hanging from the cabside and as visible on both locomotives, the front spectacle window wiper arm.

R C Riley (RCR 10361).

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL No. 5043 EARL OF MOUNT EDGCUMBE Numerically-speaking, the largest renaming exercise concerned the ‘Earls’ Nos. 5043 to 5063, the first twenty of which had originally been affixed or allocated to 4-4-0s then being created in 1936-8 through marriage of Bulldog Class frames with Duke Class boilers.

These types dated from the 1890s, and the result was useful ‘new’ locomotives of distinctly old-fashioned appearance. Reportedly the Earl names were hurriedly transferred to Castles following a complaint that it was inappropriate to be associated with such antiquelooking machinery. The identity of the complainant remains undisclosed but the real reasons might have been a little more complex.

Thus No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe recognised an individual who served as a board member from February 1924 until March 1943. This was a title with dynastic connections as the family name of St. Aubyn was carried by Bulldog No. 3367/ 3355 until September 1930 and also Colonel The Honourable C E Edgcumbe was a director between August 1891 and February 1915.

Another case of multiple recognition was No. 5048 Earl of Devon (family name Courtenay) which was the title of a director of the Bristol & Exeter Railway although the name cannot be traced in the GWR director lists.

The family seat is Powderham Castle (No. 4080) with another, Holker Hall (No. 6911) at Cartmel in Cumbria.

Multiple recognition also concerned No. 5046 Earl Cawdor whose predecessor Viscount Emlyn (4-2-2 Achilles Class No. 3071, withdrawn October 1914) had been chairman of the company 1895-1905. The family’s country seat was Stackpole Court (No. 2948).

Batches of 4-6-0 passenger locomotives with themed names were usually allocated in alphabetical order. At first sight the Earls were applied on a random basis, with no obvious logical order. However, Nos. 5043-9 related to individuals who had been or were GWR directors.

An impeccably well turned out No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe stands at the entrance to Old Oak Common shed on 30 March 1957.

It is paired to Hawksworth 4000g tender No. 4095. This photograph was taken just over a year before the locomotive was to receive a double chimney during a Heavy Intermediate overhaul at Swindon.

R C Riley (RCR 10378).

Right: A detailed view of the nameplate taken on the platform at Newton Abbot on 12 August 1957. Note how the plate diameter does not match that of the wheel splasher.

J Robertson.

48

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY No. 5049 EARL OF PLYMOUTH Another grouped company included in this process was the Barry Railway, where No. 5049 Earl of Plymouth recognised an individual who was an ex-Barry director who sat briefly on the GWR board in 1923, and whose ancestral home was St. Fagans Castle (No. 5067).

Right: Almost at the end of the hard work, No. 4908 Broome Hall leads No. 5049 Earl of Plymouth on the final approach to Dainton summit on 29 June 1957. The train will coast down to Aller Junction and on to Newton Abbot where the Hall will come off, turn and then be ready to return to Plymouth, while the Castle will continue eastward alone.

Well into BR days, there were many examples of pre-Grouping coaching stock still in front line service. The coach in view is Diagram D52 57’ Toplight Brake Third No. 3568, which was built in October 1912 and would remain in normal service until March 1958. On withdrawal, it entered departmental service as Messing & Tool Van No. DW 150093.

R C Riley (RCR 8190).

No. 5051 EARL BATHURST Built in May 1936 as Drysllwyn Castle, No. 5051 was renamed Earl Bathurst on 18 August 1937. The peerage of Bathurst dates back to 1772 and its only association with the GWR appears to be geographical, with the seat being near Cirencester in Gloucestershire.

majority of its working life. This continual South Wales domicile probably resulted in it being despatched to Woodhams Bros. at Barry upon withdrawal on 24 May 1963. This fortunately led to purchase by the Great Western Society and a move to Didcot for restoration to working order in 1980. It has subsequently enjoyed two operational periods in preservation and following expiry of the boiler ticket in 2008, is on static display.

The locomotive was part of Lot. 303 and was delivered new to Landore shed in Swansea, where it spent the

Above: No. 5051 Earl Bathurst, seen here at Old Oak Common on 12 September 1958, was an example of a noble who seems to have been without any direct board connection. His country seat was Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire but the GWR never got around to using parks in its naming programme. This view of No. 5051 confirms that none of the 21 ‘Earl’ engines were ever graced with the distinguishing CASTLE CLASS plate below the nameplate.

R C Riley (RCR 12773).

49

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL No. 5063 EARL BALDWIN Alfred Baldwin MP joined the Board of the GWR in February 1901 and served as Chairman from August 1905 until his death in office in 1908. His son Stanley succeeded him as a Director in February 1909 and remained a board member until his resignation in 1917. He had also followed his father into politics and became the most eminent Conservative Party politician of the inter-war years serving three terms as Prime Minister (May 1923-January 1924, November 1924-June 1929, and June 1935-May 1937). He resigned the day after the Coronation of King George VI on 28th May 1937, and following retirement was made a Knight of the Garter and elevated to the peerage as Earl Baldwin of Bewdley and Viscount Corvedale.

afore-mentioned 5’ 8” driving wheel 4-4-0s. A modified spacer sheet was therefore necessary between the splasher and the nameplate with resultant disparity in radii.

Earl Baldwin’s political reputation was subsequently damaged through his alleged pre-war attempts to appease Nazi Germany but he was a man of personal moral rectitude. During his premiership, Baldwin had labelled GWR Director Sir Robert Horne (later Viscount Horne, see page 58) who was a lifelong bachelor and an acknowledged womaniser as a ‘Scots cad’, a sobriquet that stuck in the public mind.

Horne was therefore probably unhappy to sanction the renaming of No. 5063, which occurred during his tenure, but could not stand in the way of prevailing public acclaim. For whatever cause, Earl Baldwin himself never re-joined the GWR board.

It was thus natural to recognise him through a locomotive name and No. 5063, completed the following month, was duly selected and the briefly titled Thornbury Castle became Earl Baldwin. However, the nameplates followed the pattern designed for the

This was the only name in the ‘Earl’ series that was not previously affixed or allocated to a 4-4-0.

Above: No. 5063 Earl Baldwin departs Oxford with an Up express on 27 February 1954, in as-built condition with the original style of outside steam pipes. The locomotive had been a resident of Worcester shed from new in June 1937, but was to head to pastures new at Bristol Bath Road following a Heavy General overhaul four months after this photograph. It was one of the eleven class members that soldiered on in service into 1965, before succumbing to the cutters torch at Cashmore’s Great Bridge.

R C Riley (RCR 5019).

Opposite page: On 20 March 1956, No. 5066 Sir Felix Pole was at its home depot, Old Oak Common. Built in July 1937 as Wardour Castle, it was to be the penultimate Castle to be renamed, during a ceremony at Paddington on 24 April 1956. R C Riley (RCR 5969).

50

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY No. 5066 SIR FELIX POLE During the inter-war years, the GWR had two senior employees of exceptional ability both of whom left the company in mid-career and who went on later to gain great distinction outside the railway sector. William A. Stanier by way of his position as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London Midland & Scottish Railway moved on to important work in connection with jet engine technology that won him the accolade of Fellow of the Royal Society, and also recognition through the naming of one of H. F. Ivatt’s version of the magnificent Coronation pacifics.

the company’s cumbersome divisional management structure that foundered against vested interests seeking to protect fiefdoms and the status quo. Then in 1929, he invoked Churchill’s ire by negotiating a contract with the Pullman Company for a prestige, luxury train between Paddington and Torbay without consulting the chairman.

Pole’s departure for the electrical engineering sector where he was appointed Executive Chairman of Associated Electrical Industries was significant in many ways. He fitted in better with a modern, still essentially young industry that had apparently recognised his genius through discussions with the GWR in the 1920s. His change of employment was to the GWR’s loss and the electrical sector’s gain.

Stanier’s father had been Chief Clerk of the GWR and a close collaborator of William Dean whereas Felix Pole was the epitome of meritocratic advancement within the company’s ranks. Coming from a modest background, he joined as a telegraph boy at Swindon in 1891 at the age of 14 years, and by 1921 had risen to become General Manager. This ‘private soldier to general officer rank’ career progression was meteoric by the standards of an innately conservative industry where senior promotions were typically a matter of filling dead men’s shoes.

Recognition of an employee, however senior, who after a controversial interlude had left the company’s employment 27 years earlier was therefore unusual. Despite all, Pole never wavered in his feelings for the GWR and it seems likely that he was engaged with the establishment of the joint venture between Metropolitan-Vickers (a 100% subsidiary of Associated Electrical Industries) and the GWR in pursuit of the first gas-turbine project that eventually became GT2, better known as BR No 18100.

Pole’s progressive dynamism had been demonstrated when managing the company’s pre-Grouping publicity campaign. This quality was sustained though many initiatives during the 1920s and his progressive ideas occasionally ruffled feathers. In 1925, outside consultants were commissioned to evaluate possible mainline electrification which was ultimately judged to be financially unjustifiable. Around the same time, the company entered discussions with the electrical engineering sector about possible construction of dieselelectric powered multiple units and later, locomotives.

It was most unlikely that Chief Mechanical Engineer Collett who was intensely traditionalist in outlook and openly hostile to outside engineering influences would have initiated or in any way favoured these enquiries.

The following year, Pole proposed an overhaul of

Pole’s closing years were tinged with sadness. He had always suffered from poor eyesight and for some time while running AEI he was completely blind, a factor that led to his retirement in 1945 when he otherwise still had much to contribute. In the context of BR’s early livery policy, he stated bluntly that one of the few advantages of his disability was that he would never see a blue King. He died on 15 January 1956 and No. 5066 (previously Wardour Castle) was renamed in his honour the following April. It was a great shame that this act was posthumous as otherwise the gesture would surely have afforded this hero of the Great Western epoch considerable pride and pleasure.

51

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: At 5.22pm on Saturday 30 April 1960, No. 5066 Sir Felix Pole is descending Gasworks Hill between Torquay and Paignton with the Kingswear portion of the 9.10am from Manchester. The leading coach is an Ivatt 60’ ‘Porthole’ Corridor Composite. Peter W Gray.

No. 5069 ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL A laudable practice was the affixing of the names of prominent employees, as opposed to directors.

Unsurprisingly, the first so honoured was No. 5069 which carried the name Isambard Kingdom Brunel from new in June 1938. He had previously been recognised through names borne by the ninth member of the broad

gauge 2-4-0 Victoria Class (built May 1863, withdrawn March 1879), and then by No 14 (later 4170) of the 4-4-0 Armstrong Class (built May 1894, withdrawn August 1928). In these earlier cases, economy had been applied by using the single word Brunel but it was decided that the Castle deserved the full IKB treatment.

Left: The nameplate was first presented as a single line and because of its length, assumed a much wider radius than that of the splasher. Why this should have been considered necessary is unclear because Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (22 digits including spaces) had been accommodated with room to spare on No. 5043 and comparison should have revealed that there was enough available for Isambard Kingdom Brunel (23 digits including spacing). In the event the uniquely fashioned nameplate was regarded as unsightly and it was replaced with a conventional plate. Fortunately Dick Riley was able to capture the original at Old Oak Common during one of his pre-war photographic forays.

R C Riley (RCR 1199).

52

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: Replacement of the original plate with the standard form worked well, just fitting neatly into the available space. Both nameplates survive as part of the National Collection at York and at the STEAM Museum in Swindon.

R C Riley (RCR 16047).

Below: On 19 July 1958, No. 5069 (83D Laira) was leaving Exeter St. Davids on the 1.25pm SO Paddington-Kingswear. The seven coaches in view are all of GWR origin, led by a Hawksworth Brake Third followed by an early Collett All Third then a pair of Composites. The two catering vehicles towards the centre are probably wearing BR(W) chocolate and cream livery. The whole ensemble is typically Great Western in the mixture of vintages and profiles. There is plenty of evidence of passengers standing at windows suggesting a heavily loaded service that was probably running late amid the crowded summer Saturday traffic. Exeter West Signal Box, which has a clear view of Platform 1 from behind the camera, has promptly returned the Home Starter to ‘On’.

R C Riley (RCR 12383).

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL No. 5070 SIR DANIEL GOOCH It was virtually inevitable that Brunel’s Locomotive Superintendent and close ally (and later Chairman of the company) should follow on after No. 5069. Sir Daniel Gooch (No. 5070, built June 1938) had been the subject of even more generous recognition down the years. The sixth member of broad gauge 2-4-0 Hawthorn Class was named Gooch (built May 1865, withdrawn May 1892).

Standard gauge 2-2-2 No. 378 was named Sir Daniel (built September 1866, withdrawn May 1898. It was the prototype of 30 locomotives known as the ‘Sir Daniel’ Class which appellation also continued with the 23 that were later converted to 0-6-0s. The third recognition was through No. 8 (later 4172) Gooch of the 4-4-0 Armstrong Class (built May 1894, withdrawn April 1929).

Above: As in life, No. 5070 out-lived its illustrious colleague by remaining in service until March 1964 whereas No. 5069 was withdrawn in September 1962. The steam/ diesel transition was well under way on Saturday 8 July 1961 as North British-built No. D6336 leads No. 5070 at Mutley Plymouth with what is believed to be the 7.00am Swindon-Penzance service. Note the addition of Overhead Electric Warning flashes on the inner firebox and forward boiler casing, introduced to BR(W) steam from early 1961. R C Riley (RCR 16031).

No. 5071 SPITFIRE The positive elements and potential risks of topicallyorientated titles surfaced with the second largest renaming exercise which was conducted between September 1940 and January 1941. This was stimulated by the Battle of Britain, officially regarded as having lasted from 10th July to 31st October 1940.

The locomotives concerned were Nos. 5071-82 which as the most recent new Castles (as opposed to Star rebuilds) had been delivered into service between June 1938 and June 1939. No. 5071 became Spitfire in September 1940, in recognition of the very symbol of British defiance. These were appropriate and timely acknowledgements of an incalculable national debt.

The dozen ‘aircraft’ renamings were as follows:

54

Locomotive

Date

Locomotive

Date

5071 Spitfire

Sep 40

5077 Fairey Battle

Oct 40

5072 Hurricane

Nov 40

5078 Beaufort

Jan 41

5073 Blenheim

Jan 41

5079 Lysander

Nov 40

5074 Hampden

Jan 41

5080 Defiant

Jan 41

5075 Wellington

Aug 40

5081 Lockheed Hudson

Jan 41

5076 Gladiator

Jan 41

5082 Swordfish

Jan 41

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: This image shows Spitfire in war-time dress with its cabside window removed/ plated over for black-out purposes. The engine is coupled to unique 4000-gallon eight-wheeled tender No. 2586. This vehicle had six-wheel brakes with the third axle un-braked to eliminate rigging that could foul the water pick-up gear. More than once in poorly-lit circumstances as in the black-out, an engineman ‘oiling round’ would report to his mate that the rearmost brakes were missing, having failed to notice the extra, non-standard axle.

Ian Allan Library.

No. 5072 HURRICANE

No. 5072 Hurricane approaches Newton Abbot on 3 July 1957, with the Down ‘The Royal Duchy’ where it will pause to take on an assisting locomotive as pilot over the south Devon banks. The Hawker Hurricane was built between 1937 and 1944, and was the RAF’s principal fighter aircraft until overtaken by the higher performance Spitfire. In the Battle of Britain, it was the RAF’s most numerous type and accounted for 60% of all enemy aircraft shot down. Withdrawn in October 1962, this locomotive had been Compton Castle (built June 1938) until its renaming in November 1940.

R C Riley (RCR 10959).

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL No. 5077 FAIREY BATTLE When introduced in 1937, the Fairey Battle was a threeman crew single-engined light bomber that represented a major advance over previous types in that category.

However, such was the pace of change in aircraft technology in the late 1930s that in combat it was found slow and vulnerable to fighter attack leading to high loss rates. When the locomotive was renamed in October 1940, its namesake aircraft was on the cusp of removal from front line service. This took place at the end of that year when it was relegated to humble training duties.

As the naming policy covered both fighter and light bomber aircraft (some of which were not directly involved in the Battle of Britain) it could be questioned as to why the application did not continue to include iconic aircraft such as the de Haviland Mosquito and Avro Lancaster. The reason was probably due to the unremitting nature of the national struggle and the resultant pressures on manpower and materials, making notions of further renamings an unwanted luxury.

Above: No. 5077 Fairey Battle (previously Eastnor Castle) is stabled at Old Oak Common on 16 August 1959.

R C Riley (RCR 14154).

No. 5082 SWORDFISH The Fleet Air Arm was also represented through No. 5082 Swordfish (previously Powis Castle built June 1939). Introduced in 1934, the Fairey Swordfish was a carrier-based single-engine biplane torpedo bomber with a crew of two. It was the oldest type named by the GWR, an antiquated design that was widely regarded as obsolete in 1939 and was appropriately nicknamed ‘stringbag’. Nevertheless, it remained in front line service on its originally intended duties until 1945, although increasingly diverted to pilot training and antisubmarine patrols in later years. The Swordfish was successfully deployed against the battleship Bismark and also at the Battle of Taranto; by the end of the war it had accounted for the despatch of a greater tonnage of enemy shipping than any other allied aircraft.

The all-embracing nature of the names included Lysander (ex-Lydford Castle built May 1939) an unarmed Army co-operation and liaison aircraft. This might have seen a strange choice at the time and its importance only became evident after the war. With exceptionally short take-off and landing capability, the Lysander was deployed on secret duties ferrying agents into and out of enemy territory at night.

Other fighter aircraft chosen were the Defiant and ageing Gladiator, whilst Bomber Command was also represented with the Blenheim, Hampden and Wellington being selected for recognition. As was Coastal Command, who were the prime operator of both the Beaufort and American-made Lockheed Hudson.

56

Having spent the first half of its life allocated to Bristol Bath Road, No. 5082 Swordfish moved to Old Oak Common in November 1952. Here it is seen leaving Paddington with the 3.15pm departure for Kingswear on 30 August 1958.

R C Riley (RCR 12676).

No. 5083 BATH ABBEY Moving from matters military to buildings ecclesiastical, the final twelve members of the Star Class were named after Abbeys, ten of which were rebuilt as Castles in the period 1937-40. The programme commenced with Nos. 4063/ 4 in June 1937 but was accorded little priority as it took over three years to complete.

The first two of the Abbeys built as Stars remained unconverted – Nos. 4061 Glastonbury Abbey and 4062 Malmesbury Abbey. Despite Collett’s convoluted financial calculations, it is questionable whether these exercises satisfied any rigorously evaluated strategic intent. There seemed no pressing traffic requirement for 4-6-0s of enhanced power as was achieved with these conversions.

cover. Bath Abbey is in the last, post-war GWR style of locomotive livery and has been converted to burn oil. In addition to the tank inserted into the tender coal space, the cab window was fitted with a sliding shutter.

With termination of the programme, No. 5083 reverted to coal in November 1948.

The Castles and other converted locomotives worked well on oil with consistently strong steaming rates that were impressive, even by GWR standards.

Unfortunately the short-term nature of the programme prevented the drawing of any conclusions about the effect on boiler life. Also, it is unknown whether oilburners would have made unnecessary the introduction of higher degrees of superheat and double chimneys, as was applied at moderate cost and to great effect with some Castles in the closing years of their careers.

Star No. 4063 Bath Abbey commemorated an ancient abbey that was dissolved in 1539 only to be restored as a parish church in 1583. The locomotive became Castle No. 5083 of the same name in June 1937, although to avoid confusion, subsidiary ‘CASTLE CLASS’ plates were added below the name.

There were differences between various Castle vintages and the nine ‘new’ Abbeys (plus No. 5086 Viscount Horne) retained their ‘joggled’ Star type mainframes as evident in the image (right) while receiving the later but slightly narrower box form of inside valve 57

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL No. 5086 VISCOUNT HORNE In true Great Western fashion, just to upset the order of the ‘Abbey’ series of Castles, one of their number was to hold a different name. No. 5086 was to retain its previous Star identity of Viscount Horne upon completion of its rebuilding at Swindon in December 1937.

August 1937 just prior to entering Swindon Works for its dismantling and rebuild as a Castle.

The ten Star rebuilds were selected for conversion as and when they required new cylinders, hence their random entry into Swindon over an extended period.

The programme was designated as Lot. 317 and by officially describing the locomotives as ‘new builds’, the cost of the work could be recovered via a Government Grant scheme. This also explains the new numbering allocation, as opposed to the identity being retained as with the first batch of Star conversions a decade earlier.

Robert Horne had joined the GWR board in February 1923 and served as Chairman from February 1934 until his death in September 1940. He had been recognised through the renaming of Star No. 4066 Malvern Abbey as Sir Robert Horne in May 1935. Consequent upon his ennoblement, this engine became Viscount Horne in

Above: Worcester shed yard is the location for this fine portrait of No. 5086 Viscount Horne on 15 April 1956.

R C Riley (RCR 5865).

No. 5092 TRESCO ABBEY The last locomotive numerically in the Star rebuilding enterprise was No. 5092 Tresco Abbey. This religious establishment located in the Isles of Scilly did not survive the dissolution of the monasteries, although it might have

closed earlier. Remaining ruins have been incorporated into Tresco Abbey Gardens. The Star locomotive was built as No. 4072 Tresco Abbey in February 1923, rebuilt as a Castle in April 1938 and withdrawn in July 1963.

Right: A clean No. 5092 Tresco Abbey arriving into Didcot with a Down express for Worcester and Hereford. Although this photo is undated, it is assessed to be shortly after its release from a Heavy General overhaul in May 1952.

The locomotive has received the modified boxed valve chest cover but has retained the original outside steam pipes. It was allocated to Worcester shed during this period J D Mills.

58

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY No. 7000 VISCOUNT PORTAL

Wyndham Raymond Portal, 1st Viscount Portal GCMG, MVO, DSO, PC (9 April 1885 – 6 May 1949) was a British politician; he was the last Chairman of the GWR, appointed in 1945. No. 7000 Viscount Portal of Newton Abbot shed (83A) was engaged in a coaching stock move near Old Oak Common on 16 August 1958.

R C Riley (RCR 12614).

No. 7001 SIR JAMES MILNE Dublin-born Sir James Milne K.C.V.O., C.S.I. (4 May 1883-1 April 1958) joined the GWR as a pupil engineer in 1904 at Swindon. He later transferred to Paddington where he gained broad administrative and operational experience. He succeeded Felix Pole as General Manager in 1929 and resigned from that position in November 1947. He had also served as deputy

chairman of the Railway Executive Committee from 1938 until 1947, although philosophically opposed to governmental control of the industry. As the senior general manager of the Big Four he declined the Chairmanship of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission which came into effect on 1 January 1948.

On the same day as the above image, No. 7001 Sir James Milne was caught on the final run into Paddington. This engine had been built as Denbigh Castle in May 1946 and was renamed in February 1948.

R C Riley (RCR 12615).

59

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL No. 7005 SIR EDWARD ELGAR Sir Edward William Elgar 1st Baronet, O.M., G.C.V.O. (2 June 1857-23 February 1934) who lived for much of his life in the Worcester-Malvern area, was a romantic composer of many classical works of which the best known are perhaps the Enigma Variations and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. ‘Bulldog’ 4-4-0 No. 3414 (previously No 3704) built May 1906 was

renamed Sir Edward Elgar August 1932 and withdrawn in October 1938.

British Rail Western Region in February 1984 renamed Class 50 Co-Co Diesel Electric No. 50 007 Hercules as Sir Edward Elgar. This was to recognise 50 years since the composer’s death.

No. 7005 Sir Edward Elgar, a long-term resident of Worcester shed (85A), was photographed coming off a Down express at Newton Abbot on 19 July 1958. This locomotive had been built as Lamphey Castle in June 1946 and was the subject of the last renaming, as late as August 1957 to mark the centenary of the composers birth; it was withdrawn in September 1964. This view is so typical of Newton Abbot in the summer months with GWR coaching stock in abundance, a ‘Hall’ in the yard to the right and plenty of enthusiast interest on the platform.

R C Riley (RCR 12362).

No. 7007 GREAT WESTERN The final Castle to be constructed under Great Western Railway auspices was No. 7007, which was the last to leave Swindon under Lot.357 in July 1946. Originally

named Ogmore Castle, it was to be re-christened Great Western in January 1948 in homage to this distinction and suitably adorned with the company coat of arms.

60

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY No. 7017 G J CHURCHWARD The affixing of the name G.J. Churchward to a locomotive was long overdue considering the great man’s contribution to GWR locomotive history. After a few days in service, the nameplates of No 7017 G.J. Churchward (built August 1948, withdrawn February 1963) were removed and the engine ran nameless until an official naming ceremony was held on 29 October 1948. It completed a CME trio with Nos. 5069/70, and speculation remains as to whether William Dean, Joseph Armstrong or even Charles Collett were considered for similar recognition on the Castle class.

Right: No. 7017 at Old Oak Common on 29 August 1959, its home depot from 9 July 1954 until withdrawal on 4 February 1963 after three months in store.

R C Riley (RCR 14208).

No. 7037 SWINDON Excluding removal of names late in the class’s career, the only other Castle to work in normal service in unnamed condition was the last built, No. 7037. This engine was delivered in August 1950, 27 years to the month after No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle had left the works. On 15 November 1950, coinciding with the Borough’s Jubilee, the locomotive was formally

named Swindon by HRH Princess Elizabeth. A commemorative plate was placed on the left-hand side of the cab to commemorate the event, and the coat of arms of the Borough was carried on the centre splasher face. Apart from a brief sojourn at Old Oak Common at the end of its life, No. 7037 was always based at Swindon shed (82C).

Above: On 25 June 1961, No. 7037 Swindon approaches Newton Abbot with the 4.05pm Paignton-Paddington service. The small brass plate marking its naming can be seen above the cabside numberplate, as can the coat of arms on the splasher. Peter W Gray.

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

CASTLES ON SHED s was to be expected with a ‘Top Link’ class of A express passenger locomotives, the Castles were to be distributed to a number of sheds across the

GWR network, obviously within the confines of their Red route operational availability. Their sad relegation to secondary duties in the latter years broadened this allocation list to include some locations not traditionally associated with express passenger links such as Neath, Llanelly, Oxley, Oxford and Southall. This chapter visits some of the locations where the class were maintained and serviced throughout their lives.

Top: No. 5006 Tregenna Castle stands alongside the huge Coal Stage at Old Oak Common on 2 June 1935. The water tank above the stage held a maximum of 290,000 gallons.

J A Whaley.

Middle: On 28 March 1947, No. 5083 Bath Abbey has its tender tanks replenished at the oil refuelling point established in Swindon shed yard. One of the five Castles equipped for oil burning, it was converted during Intermediate overhaul in November 1946.

A total of sixteen sheds were equipped for oil refuelling, namely: Old Oak Common, Cardiff Canton, Bristol (Bath Road and St Philip’s Marsh), Plymouth Laira, Severn Tunnel Junction, Reading, Gloucester, Newport Ebbw Junction, Westbury, Didcot, Newton Abbot, Llanelly and Swindon. Facilities at Banbury and Swansea Landore were only partially installed before the project was abandoned.

GWR Official.

Bottom: Whilst this image is undated in the archive, it is assessed to be from early 1941. The location is Hereford shed and No. 5079 Lysander sits awaiting its next duty. The locomotive was a resident of South Wales during this period, spending time at both Canton and Landore. Wartime measures are in evidence with the cab side-window plated over and the blackout sheet seen rolled above the cab roof. Notice also the white painted bases of the water columns and lamps, so treated to aid vision during blackout conditions.

R C Riley (RCR 818).

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

A gleaming newly-constructed No. 7023 Penrice Castle stands in the shed yard at Bristol Bath Road on 9 July 1949. The locomotive is probably en-route to its first allocation at Cardiff Canton and interestingly is yet to receive the British Railways ‘cycling lion’ insignia on the side of Hawksworth 4000g tender No. 4065.

It was to gain a double chimney in May 1958 and was one of the last to remain in traffic until February 1965.

The yard in front of the six-road running shed at Newton Abbot (83A) finds a coaled and in-steam No. 4077 Chepstow Castle ready for its next turn on 29 August 1954. The February 1924-built locomotive had been a resident of Newton since March 1935, but was to move over the South Devon banks to Plymouth Laira within a fortnight of this photograph being taken.

R C Riley (RCR 5314).

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: No. 5015 Kingswear Castle at Oxford shed (81F) on 29 April 1956. The Stafford Road allocated locomotive now carries the later short pattern of single chimney which contrasts with the original tall version it was built with as seen on page 17. Eric Sawford.

Below: Having its smokebox cleaned of ash deposits, whilst simultaneously having the tender manually replenished with finest South Wales steam coal, No. 4089 Donnington Castle stands at the Plymouth Laira (83D) coaling stage on 13 May 1956. P Kerslake.

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: No. 5091 Cleeve Abbey outside the original 1871 shed building at Swindon (82C) on 31 January 1960. The locomotive has been inside the nearby Works undergoing a Heavy General overhaul since the end of November, prior to a return to Landore. D Idle.

Below: Shrewsbury shed plays host to No. 5045 Earl of Dudley and Stanier ‘Jubilee’ 4-6-0 No. 45629 Straits Settlements. The work weary looking Castle is in the condition indicative of Wolverhampton Stafford Road allocated locomotives during the early 1960s.

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Despite the decline of steam in the South West from 1960 onwards, top flight motive power was still well maintained as exemplified by No. 4095 Harlech Castle on Saturday 29 April 1961 at Penzance shed. Many of the duties handled by Castles elsewhere on the system were devolved in the Duchy to 4-6-0 Counties, one of which No. 1001 County of Bucks is seen behind.

R C Riley (RCR 15655).

No. 7010 Avondale Castle stands over the inspection pits in Shrewsbury shed yard. An Old Oak Common resident for the majority of its life, it has likely worked to Shropshire from Paddington on the ‘Cambrian Coast Express’.

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Bristol Bath Road shed (82A) is the location for this undated study of No. 7032 Denbigh Castle.

Obviously having had recent attention from the cleaning gang, it has been coaled and turned ready for a probable working back to London. One of the final batch of ten Castles built by British Railways under Lot.375, it left Swindon Works in June 1950 and spent its entire service at Old Oak Common.

No. 7029 Clun Castle was at Gloucester shed on 9 October 1965, having been transferred there to conduct its final duties prior to preservation. Note the wooden replacement smokebox numberplate.

Arnold W Battson.

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

OPERATING IN CORNWALL ue to their numbers, the Castles formed a constant 4-6-0 Counties shared in these responsibilities, and with D and familiar presence on main line routes across good reason. Overall speeds were typically slower than most of the Great Western network. They strayed as when racing through the Thames valley, station stops far as their ‘Red route’ availability would permit but their presence was least felt in the far South West, over the old Cornwall Railway main line to Penzance. Their smooth running capabilities naturally made them speed machines but these qualities offered little advantage over a sinuous, undulating line that traversed almost the complete length of the Duchy.

were more frequent, and capable hill climbing was important. The combination of two cylinders, smaller driving wheels and the ‘punch’ delivered by Stephenson’s Link Motion provided what was most needed.

Castles did regularly work in Cornwall and indeed examples were allocated to Truro and Penzance, but in proportionately fewer numbers. This comparative scarcity and the fact they were the largest passenger locomotives in the Duchy, added further to their allure.

In the 1930s, the heavier passenger traffic increasingly devolved upon the new Granges and after the War, the

Left: No. 4089 Donnington Castle awaits the ‘right away’ from Penzance with the Up ‘Cornish Riviera Express’ during 1949. The Plymouth Laira allocated locomotive is still wearing the experimental light green livery, embellished with red, cream and grey lining and BRITISH RAILWAYS (Gill Sans) in full on the tender. Other members of the class to carry this short lived colour scheme included Nos. 4091/5010/5021/5023/7010-13.

The train appears to be made up of Collett designed 1938 Standard stock.

The distinctive station trainshed was built in 1876 to a design by the GWR Civil Engineer William Lancaster Owen.

Milepost collection.

Right: A rather grubby No. 5003 Lulworth Castle of Exeter shed (83C) is departing Penzance with the 2.00pm Perishables on 12 July 1956. This engine is still in its original form, apart from the revised shape of outside steam pipe and it remained in this condition until withdrawn from Newton Abbot on 29 August 1962. Parcels and perishables workings could produce interesting mixtures of stock and in this case, all of the Big Four plus British Railways are represented in this six vehicle rake. Only the third is of GWR origin, a Passenger Brake Van of (possibly) Diagram K41.

R C Riley (RCR 7609).

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Seasonal broccoli specials from Cornwall were a particular feature of afternoon traffic. These trains typically consisted of suitably cleaned cattle wagons, which were collected at various points en route.

A pristine No. 4083 Abbotsbury Castle of Newton Abbot shed has arrived at Marazion on 9 April 1960, where it will pause to add to its featherweight load.

R C Riley (RCR 14641).

No. 5053 Earl Cairns is about to depart Gwinear Road in the Up direction on Saturday 29 April 1961. The main line curves away to the left, while the branch to Helston (England’s most southerly railhead) disappears in the middle distance. R C Riley (RCR 15668).

69

Top left: Whilst No. 5094 Tretower Castle has the ‘board’ to depart Truro on 7 July 1955, the Driver looks back along his train for the Guard’s permission to start. R C Riley (RCR 6309).

Top right: The tranquillity at Grampound Road is temporarily disturbed as No. 4099 Kilgerran Castle passes on 7 July 1955 with the 0.35am Manchester-Penzance. R C Riley (RCR 6302).

Below: On 8 July 1955, Bristol Bath Road’s No. 7019 Fowey Castle stands at St Austell on an Up train, which judging by the ex-LMS Brake vehicle is likely a West to North service. The BR-built locomotive entered traffic in May 1949 and was to be one of the final dozen remaining operational into 1965. Withdrawal came in February from Oxley shed and it was cut up at Cashmore’s Great Bridge yard. R C Riley (RCR 6337).

70

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: Waiting patiently with the safety valves lifting for the right away at Par on 9 April 1960, is No. 4083 Abbotsbury Castle. This is the same Up perishables working as seen on page 69, on which the photographer had ridden the footplate. R C Riley (RCR 14650).

Below: No. 4077 Chepstow Castle approaching Lostwithiel with a Down service on Sunday 10 July 1955. The composition of the train suggests a scratch set assembled as an ‘extra’. The remains of Restormel Castle can be seen in the background. R C Riley (RCR 6371).

71

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: On 29 September 1960, the first of the post-war ‘Hawksworth’ construction programme, No. 5098 Clifford Castle waits to depart Bodmin Road on an Up passenger service. The branch to Bodmin General trailed into the mainline from the left. R C Riley (RCR 15419).

Below: No. 4099 Kilgerran Castle approaches Liskeard on Sunday 10 July 1955 with an Up parcels or perishables service. Leading the motley composition of vehicles is a Mk1 Restaurant First, working home after a trip to Penzance the previous day. R C Riley (RCR 6384).

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: Double chimney fitted No. 5066 Sir Felix Pole crosses Moorswater Viaduct with the Up ‘Cornish Riviera Express’ on Saturday 15 August 1959. The stone piers for the original 1859 Brunel timber trestle construction can be seen to the left.

Peter W Gray.

Below: Setting wheel on Cornish soil after crossing the River Tamar on Brunel’s magnificent Royal Albert Bridge, is Penzance allocated No. 4087 Cardigan Castle on 9 December 1950. The Down stopping service is about to make the Saltash call. A Lathey.

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

DOUBLE-HEADING IN DEVON uch was the operational competence of the Castles, gradient continued to ease through Brent to the summit S that the need for an assisting locomotive was rare, at Wrangaton. From there, it was a matter of tidying up, except in Devon. Opinions varied over which of the a quick wash with the pep pipe, and the last of the cold south Devon banks was the most challenging. Dainton East and West were two sides of a spike, steeper than Rattery and Hemerdon but shorter. Down trains had about five miles for boiler recovery from Dainton Summit to the short level stretch at Totnes before the eight miles of Rattery commences at the western station limits.

Traversing Marley Tunnel was a welcome point as the

tea. Hemerdon was probably the easiest climb because gradients were generally favourable over the preceding five miles from North Road to Plympton, and both engines and crews would be fresh. Overall, westbound trains faced the harder task, especially when man and locomotive had been hard at it over the 194 miles from Paddington to Newton Abbot.

Above: On Monday 4 July 1955, long-time Newton Abbot resident (November 1946-April 1960) No. 5079 Lysander pilots Laira’s No. 6010 King Charles I with the Up ‘Cornish Riviera Express’ on the climb of Hemerdon. The train appears to comprise around 12-14 coaches which all seem to be Hawksworth mainline stock, except for the two catering vehicles.

R C Riley (RCR 5756).

Right: Double-heading over the south Devon banks involving Castles normally meant a pairing with another 4-6-0 but large prairies were also used as pilots and bankers. On Sunday 3 July 1955, an Up parcels train was descending from Stoneycombe towards Aller Junction with No. 5076 Gladiator (Bristol Bath Road) piloted by Class 51xx No 5158, a long time Newton Abbot resident.

Behind the tender is a Dia. DD4 Cordon obviously returning for a gas refill, followed by three ex-LMS Passenger Brake Vans (the second of which is in blood and custard), then what seems to be a Fruit D, an ex-SR GUV, then an assortment of vans and some corridor vehicles towards the rear.

R C Riley (RCR 6211).

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Cresting the summit of Dainton on 29 June 1957, Nos. 7813 Freshford Manor and 5078 Beaufort (both allocated to Newton Abbot) head the 8.17 am Carmarthen-Penzance westwards. Newton Abbot- Plymouth pilot duties had for many years been the speciality of the 4-4-0 Bulldogs but by the 1950s, much of this work was undertaken by Manors.

R C Riley (RCR 10897).

Powering up Hemerdon on Tuesday 5 July 1955 is the Saturdays-excepted 7.30am Truro-Paddington, in the hands of No. 5095 Barbury Castle assisted by No. 7903 Foremarke Hall (both allocated to Old Oak Common). The train appears to consist of entirely ex-GWR stock, the first of which is a Toplight All Third, possibly the oldest vehicle in the rake and there as a ‘filler’.

R C Riley (RCR 6234).

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: On 18 July 1958, a French Line boat train passes Aller Junction on the way into Newton Abbot, where pilot engine No. 7820 Dinmore Manor will come off the train leaving No. 5075 Wellington to continue Paddington-bound alone.

R C Riley (RCR 12344).

Below: Nos. 4098 Kidwelly Castle and 7006 Lydford Castle get under way from Newton Abbot’s Platform 4 on 19 July 1958 with a Down service. In the adjacent Platform 2, No. 7005 Sir Edward Elgar stands with an arrival from Worcester. R C Riley (RCR 12360).

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

IN THE WORKS s with the majority of Great Western locomotives, remedial repairs, including wheel drops, running A the primary construction and major overhauls gear replacement and piton/valve adjustments were of the Castles was undertaken at Swindon Works. undertaken within the factory shops at some of the This was supplemented by lighter work carried out at the secondary works, such as Wolverhampton, Newton Abbot, Worcester and Caerphilly. In addition

larger running sheds. Larger locomotives would always be prioritised at Swindon and as a result images recording them at the smaller sites are uncommon.

Left: This fascinating photograph dating from 24 July 1947, shows a recently refurbished Castle front bogie standing alongside the western entrance to ‘A’ Shop at Swindon. The wheels are the standard 10-spoke 3’ 2” diameter variety.

An interesting development surrounded the re-use of a dozen Castle bogies obtained from Swindon, as part of the turntable mechanism of the Mk.1 Jodrell Bank radio telescope. Later modification saw only the wheels themselves utilised.

GWR Official.

Below: No. 4000 North Star is seen exworks between the Reception Shed and the Test House at Swindon Works on 11 June 1950. The locomotive had been ‘inside’ since 10 May and had received a rapid Heavy General overhaul, before return to its home shed at Wolverhampton Stafford Road. In all, this Castle visited Swindon on 28 occasions, between its conversion in August 1929 and withdrawal in May 1957.

R C Riley (RCR 3028).

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

Above: There is surely no more recognisable location than alongside the iconic southern elevation of Swindon Works ‘A’ Shop. In January 1961, No. 5071 Spitfire and a Hawksworth County wait to be traversed into the shop to begin their respective overhauls.

78

Above: Newton Abbot’s No. 5024 Carew Castle sparkles like new having just been released from a Heavy Intermediate overhaul on 31 January 1960. This was to be its last works visit to Swindon, which had begun early the previous December. Ex-works locomotives were held on these sidings alongside the Reception Shed awaiting pairing with a recently refurbished tender, in this case it was to be Collett 4000g No. 2718.

D Idle.

Right: Worcester Works is the location for this 24 August 1964 view of No. 7013 Bristol Castle (ex-4082). The 35-ton crane has elevated the front of the locomotive to enable the bogie to be removed for attention, or possibly access to the inside valve gear. Withdrawal followed within weeks.

Leslie Turner.

Left: Within the cavernous expanse of Swindon’s ‘A’ Shop, No. 5084 Reading Abbey keeps company with No. 5077 Fairey Battle and another unidentified classmate. The date is thought to be January 1956, when both locomotives were in for Heavy General overhauls.

I Martin.

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL

THE ‘SUPER CASTLES’ n 1933, Mr F C Hall, Outdoor Assistant to the Chief company’s control, the programme was closed down Imatters Mechanical Engineer, was invited to advise on various before the effect on boiler life could be determined (e.g. concerning the Trans-Iranian Railway, then stress induced by rapid temperature changes given the owned by Anglo Persian Oil Co. Ltd and later part of Iranian State Railways. Following this assignment, Hall was engaged according to the GWR Magazine to ‘supervise construction’ of five sturdy oil-burning 2-8-0s built by Beyer Peacock (works Nos. 6771-5) although his involvement was more probably that of Inspecting Engineer representing the purchaser. This arrangement was apparently satisfactory as Hall was engaged in a similar role with supply of four 4-8-2+28-4 Garratts (works Nos. 6787-90) in 1936. These engines reached altitudes of 7000 ft, often in harsh weather, over an arduous heavily engineered route that traversed the Elburz Mountains, and ran close to the border with present-day Azerbaijan along the western and southern coast of the Caspian Sea. The Garratts were highly effective, achieving significant operating economies by consuming naphtha oil residue from APOC refineries. The same house magazine modestly reported that ‘the GWR may legitimately take personal pride in their performance, the success of which will have depended in no small measure upon the skill and knowledge placed at the disposal of the Iranian Government by the Company’.

shorter periods needed to raise working pressure from cold). However, the degree of improvement posed the question how much the superheater contributed and whether it could be discarded in favour of an oil-burning saturated boiler without detriment to performance.

Moving from hypothesis, the impact of the three-row superheater and the greater success of its four-row successor is well documented in face of poorer quality fuel but it seems doubtful whether the resultant benefits were optimally exploited. The higher degree of superheat and associated installation of double chimneys was highly cost effective, compared with the expense required to make Bulleid Pacifics work with consistent reliability. Heads were certainly turned in the summer of 1956 when No. 7018 Drysllwyn Castle appeared with its self-weighing tender and a chimney type hitherto only associated with the Kings and Hawksworth Counties.

Less obvious was No. 7018’s selection on grounds that it was perhaps the worst performer of the 5098-series, the better to assess the results. The modifications completely transformed the locomotive’s performance, and was the catalyst for a total of 66 class members being converted to double chimney form.

Enormous energy demands during World War 2 and the concomitant post-war coal crisis encouraged the oil burner programme. The GWR’s earlier direct involvement in this technology was fleeting (experimental 0-4-0T No. 101 of 1902) so given prewar collaboration, it was hardly surprising that APOC should play a developmental role in the programme of the later 1940s. Fireboxes and tenders were suitably modified while the boilers of the five Castles retained the original two-row (low degree) superheater. Steaming was remarkable with working pressure consistently at or close to blowing off, regardless of how hard the locomotive was worked. For reasons beyond the

Once the value of the conversion was proven, it was curious that of the final batch of post-war locomotives, Nos. 5099, 7000/9/11/12/16/17/25-7/37 saw out their careers in as-built 3-row, single chimney form. Rather than harmonise all forty as a group of high performance ‘super Castles’ to see out steam, the process of modernisation was haphazard with no ostensible strategic focus. However worthy the modifying of 36-year old No. 4074 Caldicot Castle in April 1959 might have appeared, that specific treatment must have incurred proportionately greater expense than up-grading a 5098-series engine that was 23 to 27 years younger.

Works drawings showing the front and side elevations of the smokebox modifications made to the draughting and blastpipe arrangements on the Castles.

This layout is for four-row superheated HC type boiler fitted locomotives and also includes the placement of the basket spark arrestor fittings.

The enlarged superheater header encroaching into the smokebox, required the centre-line positioning of the double chimney to be forward of that associated with single chimneyed engines.

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: No. 7018 Drysllwyn Castle undergoing the prototype conversion to double chimney configuration, in a bay at the western end of the Swindon Works (AE) erecting shop on 6 May 1956. The process had commenced on 28 March and was officially documented on the Locomotive Record Card as a Heavy Casual overhaul. It retained its three-row superheated HB boiler (No. 7608), but with an experimental twin blastpipe within the smokebox. The double chimney itself was of a rather ugly narrow rectangular design with parallel vertical proportions, that was individually fabricated as opposed to being a cast component.

Regardless of the aesthetic failings, the modification transformed the performance of the locomotive, as proven during a series of dynamometer trials on ‘The Torbay Express’ and hauling ‘The Bristolian’. Note also the SC (Self Cleaning) plate below the 87E (Landore) shedplate, designating the installation of a selfcleaning spark screen in the smokebox, which was unique for the class.

Ron H Fullagar.

Right: No. 7029 Clun Castle stands in Gloucester shed yard on 9 October 1965. This shows the standard style of Castle double chimney that was fitted to all the conversions and also retrospectively to No. 7018 in early 1958. The design conformed to a much more aesthetically pleasing elliptical shape and construction was by means of an iron foundry-casting, the marks from which can be discerned in the inset enlargement. The principal dimensions were: Length - 40”, Width - 27”, Height - 22”, Bore diameters - 13”.

Arnold W Battson.

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL APPENDIX OF DOUBLE CHIMNEY FITTED LOCOMOTIVES Locomotive

Date Fitted

Withdrawn

Locomotive

Date Fitted

Withdrawn

4074 Caldicot Castle

Apr 1959

May 1963

5084 Reading Abbey

Oct 1958

Jul 1963

4080 Powderham Castle

Aug 1958

Aug 1964

5088 Llanthony Abbey

Jun 1958

Sep 1962

4087 Cardigan Castle

Feb 1958

Oct 1963

5092 Tresco Abbey

Oct 1961

Jul 1963

4088 Dartmouth Castle

May 1958

May 1964

5094 Tretower Castle

Jun 1960

Sep 1962

4090 Dorchester Castle*

Apr 1957

Jun 1963

5095 Barbury Castle

Nov 1958

Aug 1962

4093 Dunster Castle*

Dec 1957

Sep 1964

5097 Sarum Castle

Jul 1961

Mar 1963

4097 Kenilworth Castle

Jun 1958

May 1960

5098 Clifford Castle

Jan 1959

Jun 1964

5001 Llandovery Castle

Jul 1961

Feb 1963

7001 Sir James Milne

Sep 1960

Sep 1963

5008 Raglan Castle

Mar 1961

Sep 1962

7002 Devizes Castle

Jul 1961

Mar 1964

5016 Montgomery Castle

Feb 1961

Sep 1962

7003 Elmley Castle

Jun 1960

Aug 1964

5019 Treago Castle

Mar 1961

Sep 1962

7004 Eastnor Castle

Feb 1958

Jan 1964

5022 Wigmore Castle

Feb 1959

Jun 1963

7006 Lydford Castle

Jun 1960

Dec 1963

5026 Criccieth Castle

Oct 1959

Nov 1964

7007 Great Western

Jun 1961

Feb 1963

5027 Farleigh Castle

Apr 1961

Nov 1962

7008 Swansea Castle

Jun 1959

Sep 1964

5031 Totnes Castle

Jun 1959

Oct 1963

7010 Avondale Castle

Oct 1960

Mar 1964

5032 Usk Castle

May 1959

Sep 1962

7013 Bristol Castle

May 1958

Feb 1965

5033 Broughton Castle

Oct 1960

Sep 1962

7014 Caerhays Castle

Feb 1959

Feb 1965

5034 Corfe Castle

Feb 1961

Sep 1962

7015 Carn Brea Castle

May 1959

Apr 1963

5036 Lyonshall Castle

Dec 1960

Sep 1962

7018 Drysllwyn Castle

May 1956**

Sep 1963

5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe

May 1958

Dec 1963

7019 Fowey Castle

Sep 1958

Feb 1965

5049 Earl of Plymouth

Sep 1959

Mar 1963

7020 Gloucester Castle

Feb 1961

Sep 1964

5056 Earl of Powis

Nov 1960

Nov 1964

7021 Haverfordwest Castle

Nov 1961

Sep 1963

5057 Earl Waldegrave

Jul 1958

Mar 1964

7022 Hereford Castle

Jan 1958

Jun 1965

5060 Earl of Berkeley

Aug 1961

Jun 1962

7023 Penrice Castle

May 1958

Feb 1965

5061 Earl of Birkenhead

Sep 1958

Sep 1962

7024 Powis Castle

Mar 1959

Feb 1965

5064 Bishop’s Castle

Sep 1958

Sep 1962

7028 Cadbury Castle

Oct 1961

Dec 1963

5066 Sir Felix Pole

Apr 1959

Sep 1962

7029 Clun Castle

Oct 1959

Dec 1965

5068 Beverston Castle*

Mar 1961

Sep 1962

7030 Cranbrook Castle

Jul 1959

Feb 1963

5069 Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Nov 1958

Feb 1962

7032 Denbigh Castle

Sep 1960

Sep 1964

5071 Spitfire

Jun 1959

Oct 1963

7033 Hartlebury Castle

Jul 1959

Jan 1963

5073 Blenheim

Jul 1959

Feb 1964

7034 Ince Castle

Dec 1959

Jun 1965

5074 Hampden

Sep 1961

May 1964

7035 Ogmore Castle

Jan 1960

Jun 1964

5078 Beaufort

Dec 1961

Nov 1962

7036 Taunton Castle

Aug 1959

Sep 1963

* Locomotives fitted with four inch extended smokebox boilers Nos. 6688 and 7671 (see Page 29 for details of dates carried). ** No. 7018 initially fitted with unique fabricated chimney in May 1956, replaced with standard version in April 1958.

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

Above: The second double chimney conversion involved No. 4090 Dorchester Castle in April 1957, this time incorporating a fourrow superheated boiler and extended smokebox. The locomotive is seen here towards the end of its life at Shrewsbury shed.

Below: No. 5069 Isambard Kingdom Brunel stands with its safety valves lifting, having just arrived at Plymouth North Road with a Down express. This Laira resident received its double chimney during a Heavy General between September and November 1958. Peter W Gray.

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The time is recorded as 3.55pm on Saturday 29 July 1961, as No. 7013 Bristol Castle storms through Dawlish Warren with the Down ‘Cornishman’. The express had departed Wolverhampton Low Level at 8.55am that morning and the Kingswear portion would have already been detached at Exeter St Davids, leaving the remaining Penzance portion to run non-stop between Exeter and Plymouth. The locomotive was allocated to Worcester (85A) at this time and probably took over the train at Bristol for the run to Plymouth. As described previously this is the former No. 4082, which received the double chimney treatment in May 1958 as well as the Davies & Metcalfe valveless mechanical lubricator fit.

Peter W Gray.

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY

LENGTHENING SHADOWS

THE TWILIGHT OF REGULAR SERVICE hose of a certain age have bitter-sweet memories of This was a time when Nos. 4003 & 4073 had secure T the early 1960s. There was particular satisfaction at futures, albeit ‘stuffed and mounted’ while a 2-cylinder the unexpected sighting of a Castle still at work among 4-6-0 had failed to win selection for the National the growing armada of modern motive power plus the biased assumption of yet another diesel failure.

Equally, there was burgeoning fear that this could be the last occasion on which an express 4-6-0 might be witnessed at a particular location on the type of duty for which it had been built. By the end of 1962, the Kings had departed having been preceded by the last Star five years earlier. There was a growing aura of finality that here was perhaps the last opportunity to enjoy a spectacle that had formed an everyday and intrinsic part of the Great Western scene a few years earlier.

The age of the Castles was drawing to a close.

Collection and the rumour mill generated baseless fears that even KGV’s future might be in jeopardy.

Well before the preservation movement’s bounty took physical form, behind every fortuitous sighting was something to treasure. Those occasions could be deeply symbolic as on a summer Saturday beside Powderham Signal Box that yielded an unceasing parade of modernity. Then and on the verge of leaving for home, a plume of steam was spotted on Exminster troughs and a lone Castle stormed past on a Down service. The last 4-6-0 witnessed at that favoured haunt proved to be none other than No. 7037 Swindon.

No. 5025 Chirk Castle departs Birmingham Snow Hill with an Up working in late 1962, just prior to being placed into storage at Oxford shed for almost a year before official withdrawal. Note the bent handrail it acquired sometime in 1961. Milepost collection.

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WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL Left: Despite the onset of dieselisation across the region, Castles continued to dominate Worcester services when this photograph was taken on 19 August 1962.

Adorned with the ‘Cathedrals Express’ headboard, No. 7023 Penrice Castle stands in Worcester shed yard with 0-6-0PT No. 9401 in the background. This Castle had been a resident of Canton from entering service in July 1949 until August 1960 when it was transferred to Worcester, its home until a final move to Oxley in June 1964, followed by withdrawal in February 1965. The double chimney was fitted in May 1958 and when the recording of steam locomotive mileages was abandoned at the end of 1963, it had clocked up over 730,600.

R C Riley (RCR 16748).

Locomotive Withdrawal Numbers (By Year)

1950 - 1

1960 - 7

1951 - 2

1961 - 4

1953 - 1

1962 - 54

1957 - 1

1963 - 48

1958 - 1

1964 - 37

1959 - 3

1965 - 12

The mass cull of the class began in 1962, and led to depressing scenes such as this captured alongside ‘A’ Shop at Swindon on 24 June 1962. The assignment of condemned locomotives awaits transfer to John Cashmore Ltd at Newport for scrapping. Locomotives from L-R are: 5035 Coity Castle, 5024 Carew Castle, 5006 Tregenna Castle, 4085 Berkeley Castle, 5090 Neath Abbey, 43xx class, Hall class, 4086 Builth Castle.

R C Riley (RCR 16615).

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY Top: The now preserved No. 5029 Nunney Castle stands in the centre road at Bristol Temple Meads with a Down parcels train on 9 August 1963.

Following a period in storage at Plymouth Laira, the engine was reinstated to Cardiff East Dock from December 1962 to see out its final year of service. Official withdrawal took place on 28 December 1963 and fortuitously it was purchased by Woodham Brothers Ltd and moved to their famous Barry scrapyard in June 1964. It became the 81st locomotive to be rescued from the South Wales site in May 1976, finding salvation at Didcot and eventual restoration to working condition by 1990.

James L Stevenson.

Middle: A feature of the class in later years was the ‘disappearance’ of identity fittings! Here is No. 7004 Eastnor Castle, bereft of smokebox and cabside number plates, with a freight service at Slough West on 10 October 1963.

Absence of the latter has resulted in the expedient of a painted number. For how much longer would the nameplate remain in situ one wonders. This locomotive had taken up residence at Reading on 29 September 1963, having moved from Worcester, and was withdrawn on 15 January 1964.

R C Riley (RCR 17391).

Bottom: Early evening shadows lengthen as No. 5070 Sir Daniel Gooch (an Old Oak Common resident from November 1962) passes Banbury on an Up van train on 10 October 1963. The steam-diesel transition period could render unpredictability in the allocation of rosters. For example, two months earlier No. 5070 was observed at Newton Abbot coming off the Glasgow Mail having led a diesel-hydraulic over the south Devon banks – a duty more befitting the status of this memorably-named engine.

Withdrawal came on 20 March 1964 and after sale to Birds (Risca) it was cut during that August.

R C Riley (RCR 17410).

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Above: At Moreton Cutting near Didcot, No. 5054 Earl of Ducie is heading the 1.10pm Worcester-Paddington on 1 August 1964. The locomotive is still wearing the white painted adornments from its high-speed run between Bristol-Paddington on 9 May. B Wadey.

Below: No. 5054 Earl of Ducie is seen again, standing in the shadows of Old Oak Common roundhouse on 12 September 1964. The aforementioned City of Truro commemorative run reaffirmed that these wonderful machines still had the legs for high speed work and that they no longer had a need to prove anything to anyone anymore. In just over a month it was to be withdrawn. R C Riley (RCR 17717).

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Above: Southall shed yard on 5 September 1964, and No. 5002 Ludlow Castle looks complete and ready for duty but the absence of all plates implies otherwise. The engine had been withdrawn four days before the date of this photograph. R C Riley (RCR 17715).

Below: A forlorn looking No. 7034 Ince Castle at Gloucester Horton Road on 22 June 1965, one day after withdrawal and two days after its last freight working. The nameplate has already been removed and the original smokebox numberplate replaced. Peter Kerslake.

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LIFE AFTER DEATH he cause of the Great Western is fortunate that introduction, three are in operational condition, with two T following the demise of normal service steam, authorised to run on the national network. the Castles are so well represented through those that survive. The evolving and continuing saga of the preservation movement straddles the self-imposed Western Times editorial boundary of 1977, and it remains policy to leave study of more recent developments in the GWR story to contemporary publications focussed on the preservation era. We make one concession however to include the photograph below, which epitomises the dedication of the many individuals who have worked tirelessly to retain the survivors for the enjoyment of future generations.

In this final chapter we individually recognise the eight surviving Castles, with work-a-day photographs and through summaries of their service records.

No. 4073 CAERPHILLY CASTLE Entered service - 11 August 1923 Withdrawn - 10 May 1960 Final mileage - 1,910,730 Present location - STEAM Museum, Swindon

Eight members of the class were to evade the relentless work of the cutter’s torch, some fortuitously via a sojourn in the South Wales scrapyard of Dai Woodham’s in Barry. Not including the doyen of the class, which was earmarked for static museum display (see page 95/96), all but one of the remaining examples have returned to steam in the intervening years since withdrawal from regular duty. In this, the centenary year since their

Allocations: Old Oak Common (Aug-23), British Empire Exhibition,Wembley (Aug-24), Old Oak Common (Nov24), Canton (Mar-34), Landore (Oct-34), Old Oak Common (Apr-35), Oxford (Feb-39), Old Oak Common (Mar-39), Swindon (Apr-43), Old Oak Common (Jul-43), Bath Road (Jul-50), St Philips Marsh (Oct-52), Swindon (Jan-53), Bath Road (Mar-53), Canton (Jan-57).

Above: No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle is seen at the Great Western Society’s Didcot Railway Centre in May 1999, shortly before moving to its current home in Swindon at STEAM - Museum of the Great Western Railway.

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The class prototype, by then a resident of Cardiff Canton, was on shed at Old Oak Common on 20 May 1956. R C Riley (RCR 5967).

Allocations: Old Oak Common (Mar-24), British Empire Exhibition, Wembley (May-25), Laira (Apr-26), Old Oak Common (May-26), Bath Road (Sep-31), Stafford Road (Dec-32), Canton (Dec-35), Newport (May-37), Canton (Jun-37), Gloucester (Dec-39), Hereford (Jun44), Gloucester(Nov-48), Stafford Road (Jun-53), Bath Road (Jun-57), Taunton (Sep-60), St Philips Marsh (Jan-61), Swindon (Aug-62), St Philips Marsh (Nov-63).

No. 4079 PENDENNIS CASTLE Entered service - 4 March 1924 Withdrawn - 14 May 1964 Final mileage - 1,758,398 (to end 1963) Present location - Great Western Society, Didcot

No. 4079 Pendennis Castle powers past Old Oak Common, on the final stretch of its journey into Paddington with an express from Cheltenham on 1 December 1957.

R C Riley (RCR 11429).

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No. 4079 Pendennis Castle heading the return leg of the Ian Allan ‘Birkenhead Flyer’ special away from Chester on 4 March 1967.

No. 5029 NUNNEY CASTLE Allocations: Old Oak Common (May-34), Worcester (Mar-58), Newton Abbot (May-59), Laira (Nov-59), Cardiff East Dock (Dec-62).

Entered service - 28 May 1934 Withdrawn - 28 December 1963 Final mileage - 1,523,415 Present location - Locomotive Services Ltd, Crewe

The Saturdays Only 7.40am St. Austell to Birmingham Moor Street is seen approaching Cowley Bridge Junction east of Exeter on Saturday 16 July 1960, in the capable hands of No. 5029 Nunney Castle.

R C Riley (RCR 15067).

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CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY No. 5043 EARL OF MOUNT EDGCUMBE

Allocations: Old Oak Common (Mar-36), Swindon (Dec-41), Old Oak Common (Apr-42), Swindon (May47), Old Oak Common (Jun-47), Carmarthen (May-52), Old Oak Common (Feb-56), Canton (Apr-62), Cardiff East Dock (Sep-62).

Entered service - 13 March 1936 Withdrawn - 16 December 1963 Final mileage - 1,400,817 Present location - Tyseley Locomotive Works

Old Oak Common East Signal Box is passed by No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe on 7 September 1957.

R C Riley (RCR 11187).

No. 5051 EARL BATHURST Allocations: Landore (May-36), Neath (Jun-61), Llanelly (Feb-63).

Entered service - 24 May 1936 Withdrawn - 24 May 1963 Final mileage - 1,316,659 Present location - Great Western Society, Didcot

No. 5051 Earl Bathurst standing at Oxford with a Paddington train on 22 June 1954.

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Mervyn Robertson.

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL No. 5080 DEFIANT Allocations: Old Oak Common (May-39), Canton (Aug-40), Swindon (Jan-41), Canton (Mar-41), Landore (Dec-55), Llanelly (Sep-61).

Entered service - 25 May 1939 Withdrawn - 11 April 1963 Final mileage - 1,117,030 Present location - Tyseley Locomotive Works

No. 5080 Defiant heads the ‘Pembroke Coast Express’ through Sonning Cutting on Saturday 1 August 1959.

No. 7027 THORNBURY CASTLE Entered service - 2 September 1949 Withdrawn - 28 December 1963 Final mileage - 728,843 Present location - Great Central Railway, Loughborough* Allocations: Swindon (stored Sep-49), Laira (Nov-49), Swindon (Oct-51), Old Oak Common (Nov-51), Worcester (Apr-60), Reading (Aug-63).

* The current situation surrounding the future of No.

7027 is a contentious and uncertain affair. After several changes of ownership in recent years and various stalled initiatives to restore it to working condition, it now appears likely it will be broken into component parts to be utilised in other preservation projects. We await the final outcome for the ‘forgotten survivor’.

Right: On 30 June 1956, No. 7027 Thornbury Castle passes Acton West with the Down 4.15pm to Plymouth. R C Riley (RCR 7424).

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R C Riley (RCR 13993).

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY No. 7029 CLUN CASTLE Allocations: Newton Abbot (May-50), Old Oak Common (Jul-62), Gloucester (Oct-64).

Entered service - 25 May 1950 Withdrawn - 31 December 1965 Final mileage - 618,073 (to end 1963) Present location - Tyseley Locomotive Works

No. 7029 Clun Castle waits at Wrexham General on Sunday 5 March 1967, whilst working the return leg of the Stephenson Locomotive Society ‘Farewell to the GWR Birmingham-Birkenhead Service’ special.

STUFFED AND MOUNTED It is probably fitting to conclude this ‘Castle Centenary Special’ by documenting the journey of the doyen of the class into preservation and posterity.

There can be no doubt that of all the locomotives selected for inclusion in the National Collection, Caerphilly Castle was amongst the most important.

The rationale behind the decision is described in a charming letter (opposite) from the BR(W) General Manager. Swindon Works staff were deeply conscious of their responsibilities in the safeguarding of this precious piece of British engineering history. Their care and devotion produced a stunning result by presenting an example of the class as it first operated in 1923.

It is fortuitous that the photographer R C ‘Dick’ Riley exploited his cordial relations with BR(W) personnel in the London Division to chart its passage in June 1961 from the railway to its first preservation home in the Science Museum, South Kensington (see overleaf).

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Awaiting departure from Old Oak Pullman shed.

(RCR 15797).

Gleaming in the sunshine, ready for a new life.

(RCR 15800).

Shunting movement at Royal Oak.

(RCR 15805).

Loading up onto the Pickfords transporters.

(RCR 15816).

Safely aboard at Park Royal.

(RCR 15839).

Double-headed on Du Cane Road, Shepherd’s Bush. (RCR 15852).

Drawing a crowd on Westbourne Park Road.

(RCR 15857).

Almost home on Queens Gate, South Kensington. (RCR 15865).

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£14.95

WESTERN TIMES B R SPECIAL

CASTLE CLASS CENTENARY AUTUMN 2023

(W)